


Alcohol plus loneliness equals one confused Otabek

by Clovesstory



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alcohol, Best Friends, Break Up, Do not copy to another site!, M/M, Mutual Pining, One-Sided Attraction, Pining, Relationship Issues, Travel, slow ish burn, victuuri wedding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2020-07-31 15:43:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 23,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20117536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clovesstory/pseuds/Clovesstory
Summary: Phichit can't believe he missed his shot with his idol, he gave Yuuri so many lectures and now awaits his own.Chris meanwhile has a relationship that's falling apart at the seams but can't let it go for fear of being alone.





	1. History

**Author's Note:**

> Chumetti is my favourite ship and I just can't stop writing them, I know mutual pining is a clique but it's just too good for my fangirl heart. Thank you for reading and comments are always appreciated <3

Bright brown eyes watch the screen intently, tiny caramel coloured hands rest right on the TV screen. Victor Nikiforov skates past the screen, his silver hair flowing behind him. Five year old Phichit watches the young skater perform, he looks like he is flying, Phichit can only dream to be that good at 12 years old. 

Phichit always watched young Victor and copied the way he skated as he grew until one day, a new skater came on to the scene. 

“Welcome to the ice in his second junior championship, Christophe Giacometti!” 

Phichit’s eyes were immediately drawn to the older skater, he came up with a nickname for the skater, Chrisy. Phichit became obsessed, his walls papered with images of several skaters but one Swiss skater appears many times. Phichit’s mother noticed the sweet obsession and saved up for months to buy Phichit tickets to the junior grand prix final in Bangkok. 

A young Phichit snuck away from the stands and found himself lost in the maze of hallways, this wasn’t the first time that his curiosity got the better of him so he wasn’t too worried. He looked down the hall and spotted curly blond hair, he smiled and called out. “Chrisy?” The ‘y’ slipped out before he could stop it and immediately he turned to run away, a small blush on his boyish chubby cheeks. 

The older skater was listening to his coach about all his warming up stretches to do when he heard the tiny and adorable voice. Chris turned and smiled, he couldn’t see anyone but a small boy who turned the corner quickly. “Wait!” Chris chased after the skater, not caring about the yelling voice of his coach. “Boy!” 

Phichit halted and turned, he fidgeted and got ready for his idol to be mad at him, his eyes filled with tears, his head down and black hair covering his face. 

Chris turned the corner and spotted the small boy. “Hi, was that you?” 

Phichit nodded and sighed, tears dripped to the carpet. 

“Hey, what’s going on? Why are you crying?” 

Eleven year old Phichit looked up at his idol, surely the fourteen year old would be mad, he’s just a little kid. Chris instead smiled and reached a hand out. 

“Christophe Giacometti, what’s your name?” 

Phichit took the offered hand in shock, the hand warm and smooth in his own. Phichit is never washing this hand again! “I’m your biggest fan! Ah I’m sorry. I’m not meant to be here.” 

Chris chuckled quietly and took his hand back. “Thank you. Are you a skater too? In Thailand?” 

Phichit nodded, “One day I'll skate on the same ice as you!” 

“I look forward to it, little one. For now, how about an autograph?” 

Phichit nodded enthusiastically and pulled out a pen. “Oh, I don’t have anything…” Phichit teared up and sighed. “I’m sorry...” 

Chris thought for a second before he took off his Swiss jacket and signed the back of it, “This is very important, be careful with it, little one.” 

Phichit gasped and held the precious garment to his chest, his head nodding vigorously. “I promise!” 

Chris smiled and ran off to his still yelling coach. Phichit meanwhile turned the jacket over and looked at the words. 

“To Little One, from your friend. Chrisy.” 

____________________________________________________________________________

That jacket was immediately framed and has sat in the same place all these years, it’s the first thing Phichit sees each morning and the first thing he sees after arriving home from Barcelona. 

Phichit sighs as he uploads his selfies, his phone memory is so low and he needs all this backed up. His best friend Yuuri finally proclaimed his love for his idol Mr. Nikiforov. Phichit meanwhile,  _ was _ making great progress with his own idol, until…

____________________________________________________________________________

Chris blows a kiss to Phichit’s phone camera and leans over the boy. “I’m so glad I finally have a friend who actually posts the selfies instead of hoarding them because he hasn’t got his right angle. Chris points at Victor who is currently flopped over Yuuri’s back and smiling so wide it must hurt. 

Phichit smiles and takes a picture of Victor and Yuuri with the hashtag #Victuuri. “The more posted, the better. Mr. Nikiforov over there came over and thanked me for the many pictures of Yuuri.” 

“Oh yeah, they were the only thing that kept Victor sane after he lost Yuuri after Sochi.” 

Phichit shyly smiles, only for Chris. “You’re such a good friend.” 

Chris’ smile seems just as genuine as he says, “As are you Peaches.” His hand moves to Phichit’s rear end, his lips close to Phichit’s ear. Phichit almost shakes as his heart leaves his body, short spiky strands of facial hair rub against the lobe of his ear, he begins to feel hot under the collar and is worried his face is a bright red. “Or should I say… Little one?” 

Wait, actually that is the moment the Phichit’s soul leaves his body. 

Chris knows, Chris remembers. 

“Wha- Wait, you.. I..” Phichit attempts to pull away but Chris follows his movement. 

“It took me a little longer than it should have, I admit. But, I knew it was you in my heart. Boy was my coach mad when I told him my jacket was gone!” 

Phichit’s brain is processing, the warmth on his neck and hand on his ass is rather distracting. “I uh.. Yeah it’s so cool, it hangs in my room.” 

“You still have it?” Chris sounds genuinely surprised and pulls away just enough for his warm breath to stop hitting Phichit’s ear in an overly intimate way. 

“You told me it was special.. So I looked after it.” 

Chris’ hand leaves his ass, his brain now looks like it’s processing. “Wow..” 

Luckily the caramel complexion of Phichit's skin is pretty forgiving when he blushes or this would be a far worse situation. 

A young man with floppy brown hair makes his way over and takes Chris’ hand. “Hey babe.” 

If there was ever a moment for Phichit to find out that the man he desires is otherwise taken, it was not in a room full of sponsors and his skating rivals. “Oh, hi.” He says through gritted teeth, his heart in his throat. 

“Hi i’m Masumi, Chris’ choreographer and boyfriend.” 

Chris smiles and kisses Masumi once on the lips. 

Phichit immediately loses control of his smile. He can’t do this. Nope, he is out. “Lovely to meet you, I’m going over there now. Yuuri looks like he’s had too much.” Phichit walks off, considering whether to actually go to Yuuri but knowing that Yuuri is so happy right now with his fiance, he deserves a night of peace. So Phichit keeps walking. His feet taking him to his room to wallow in self pity. 

Luckily the minibar is stocked with little bottles of various alcohol, he’s meant to sharing with Celestino, but he went off with some lady from the banquet so Phichit has the room to himself. 

He starts with his least favourite, the tiny tequila bottle. He downs the drinks, bottle by bottle, he knows this is the worst idea ever but he can’t stop, the pain is too much. Several tiny bottles in sees Phichit shirtless and rolling around on his bed taking photos of his tear stained face, all ready to send to Chris in a drunken moment of weakness. What Phichit forgets is that Otabek Altin is staying next door. 

He comes in at 2am, all sweaty and tired from his set at the club he DJ’d at. He has his card out and ready to enter his room when he hears drunken singing coming from the room beside his. Normally he would grumble and just deal with it, but he happens to know that Phichit is in that room and usually he is the most quiet of all the skaters, only a small squeal every now and again. Otabek knocks on the door, the singing comes to a stop and the door swings open. 

“OTABEK! What a nice surprise!” 

Otabek is fully taken aback by the shirtless and disheveled Phichit, he smells a strong scent of alcohol radiating off the Thai skater. “Uh, are you okay?” 

“Fine! Yeah, just fine. Come on in I’ll make tea. Or  _ tea _ -quila!” Phichit cackles at his own joke and heads into the room. 

Otabek only comes in to try and quiet Phichit down. Otabek looks around at all the tiny empty bottles and sighs.  _ How the hell did this happen?  _ “Phichit, what’s going on? It’s 2am and people are trying to sleep.” 

Phichit walks right into Otabek’s space and leans into his face. “People suck. Men suck, Crushing sucks. You wait your whole life looking for that one man, and he’s got problems.” 

Otabek knows exactly how Phichit feels, having looked up to the bright soldier eyes of Yuri Plisetsky. Otabek doesn’t have to wonder long to find out who Phichit is talking about. 

“Chris  _ haaaad _ to have a boyfriend didn’t he? All those years of being single and fucking guys, all for me to finally reach him, and he’s fucking taken.” Phichit is majorly slurring but Otabek understands well enough. 

“You have a crush on Chris? Are you insane?” 

“Yes I am, Mr. Altin. Yes. I. Am.” Phichit moves away from Otabek and downs another small bottle of some random drink, it could be anything really but Otabek highly doubts it’s non alcoholic. 

“Phichit, would you please just go to bed! I’m tired.” 

Phichit stops wobbling around and makes his way to Otabek, pressing the man to to hotel wall behind him, “Come sleep with me?” 

Otabek doesn’t know what to do and is severely scolding himself for coming into this room. “Uh… No.” 

Phichit pouts and runs a hand over Otabek’s tight club pants. “But.. But…” 

Otabek chokes out a gasp and tries to wriggle out of the hold when Phichit’s lips meet his. It’s wet and messy but, well, Otabek isn't dead. He kisses back for only a second before pushing Phichit back by his shoulders. “No no no, you are drunk as hell.” 

“Chris won’t have sex with me... Maybe we could...” 

“Phichit. No.” Otabek holds his hands around Phichit’s waist since the boy doesn’t look steady enough on his own. “Are you okay?” 

“I’m sorry.” A tear slides down Phichit’s face and he leans against Otabek’s shoulder sniffling a few times before falling silent and flopping in Otabek’s arms. 

“Holy crap…” He manages to carry the slim boy to his bed and throws a blanket over him. As a last minute decision he puts the hotel rubbish bin on the side of Phichit’s bed. He sighs and heads to his room, wiping his lips and taking a drink of water before going to bed.  _ Well, at least it’s quiet now.  _

Waking up in his own vomit was not the proudest of Phichit’s life. He doesn’t remember anything after making his way to his room and the first liquor bottle. He knows someone made their way into the room and sorted him out since a bin was nearby, he suspects that may have been Otabek for some reason, since the Kazakh has been giving him weird looks ever since he emerged from his room with his packed bags. Of all the skaters… Actually that was probably the best skater to help him. 

____________________________________________________________________________

Phichit’s banging headache has mildly subsided since the flight, but he knows it will be back with a vengeance. He scrolls through the banquet photos, the ones of Chris pulling a rope tightly around his heart. Boy, he gets the shock of his life when he sees the shirtless, teary and clearly very drunk photos. He cringes as he sees the sadness and alcohol staining his face, thank god these never left his phone. 

_ Or did they? _ Phichit thinks back, he vaguely remembers that he took the photos for Chris but he didn’t send them..  _ Oh god! _ Phichit opens his messages to Chris and sees all the photos sent to Chris.  _ No replies... _

The worst part was the little note at the bottom that said, ‘Read.’ 


	2. Tired

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's a look into Chris' brain...

Chris is alone in his living room, well not completely, his kitty 'Baby’ is curled up on his lap. Baby is his main source of comfort these days. 

He looks through his messages on his phone, making sure to keep Josef up to date while also assuring Victor that he will be beaten at the next grand prix. Chris finds himself trying to deny his boredom these days, he is not going to fall into the trap that Victor did while waiting to find Yuuri. 

Chris has what most people can only dream of but something is missing, it’s adventure it’s fun. He never really had that spark, he made decisions that seemed great at the time but now feel like he is being drained or even trapped. He needs excitement in his life, Christophe Giacometti is struggling with domestic life, who would of thought.. 

Chris leans back on the cushions and sighs. When do you cross the line from young and fun to… This. 

He knows he loves his wonderful boyfriend, in fact he purchased a ring some time ago, he isn’t sure why he hasn’t just taken that step yet, it shouldn’t be this hard.

Baby purrs in his lap and stretches with a small squeak. Chris smiles and coos at her, giving her a little kiss on her soft forehead. “I promise to spend as much time as I can with you my darling kitty.” Baby looks up and gives a little meow yawn. “Aww, am I boring you with my love sweetie? Huh?” 

His phone has been beeping incessantly since he took it off airplane mode and is unable to keep up, he keeps getting messages sent the night of the banquet, apparently he needs a newer phone to keep up with demand. He goes through the notifications one by one, answering or ignoring, depends on the person and the message. He gets several drunk Victor and Yuuri messages from last night's banquet to scroll through, Victor could not have found himself a more perfect partner. Many people say that Yuuri is the luckiest man alive but Chris knows that the lucky one is in fact Mr. Victor Nikiforov to be with the Eros king. Chris still considers himself the king of Mature Eros but he must admit that Yuuri has him beat when it comes to young, shy Eros. That youthfulness is very enviable but Chris knows he still has his fans of all ages and genders. 

Chris and Phichit are on good terms and often send each other selfies while training so it’s no surprise that he gets a photo notification from Phichit. He opens the file and waits a minute for the six photos to download, even in the tiny thumbnail, he can see that these are not the normal photos they send to each other. Phichit is shirtless, his athletic torso on display and his face wet from tears, if the tiny hotel liquor bottles are any indication, he is rather drunk. 

One photo has a caption underneath. ‘Why him?’ 

“Why him? What?” Chris says aloud to himself as he looks at the photos over again, he tries a few times to reply but ends up just staring at the photos. Although drunk, Phichit’s eyes are painfully genuine. 

Were these photos meant for Chris? Or are they for someone else and Chris is merely the unfortunate recipient of a drunken message. Chris decides they must not be for him and maybe for a lover of Phichit’s. 

In order to spare the young Thai some embarrassment, he decides not to reply. 

He puts his phone to sleep and stares at the stairs. He intends to head up and join his sleeping boyfriend but his eyes droop and he finds the stairs unappetizing, he puts his phone to the side and wraps a blanket around himself and his kitty. “Night baby.” 

  
  


___________________________________________________________________________

  
  


Phichit holds his phone in his hand, he stares at the dots of Chris typing and then stopping and over again before stopping for good. He almost wishes Chris had just said something, their friendship means a lot to him and as long as he can stay friends, he will be happy. 

For now he needs some support from his best friend. He sighs, his fear building at the look of the sent messages. He clicks out of it and face times Yuuri. “Yuuri oh my god I fucked up!” 

Yuuri rubs his eyes and sits up on his couch in his Saint Petersburg home. “Phichit? What happened?”

Phichit feigns being shot in the heart. “I sent my crush some awful photos of myself bawling my eyes out and drunk as a skunk.”

Yuuri feeds of the energy of his friend. “Oh god… Screenshots… I need screenshots… I need to know how much of a hole you’ve dug yourself.” 

“Oh god.. Okay don’t judge me.. This is about five tequilas in..” Phichit sends Yuuri the original photos to avoid telling him who his crush is, since Victor is Chris’ best friend, it’s too dangerous to remind Yuuri of this particular infatuation. He trusts Yuuri with his life but all it would take is a glance from Victor for Phichit's life to come crashing down.

Yuuri scoffs, he’s offended at the mere thought he would judge his best friend after everything. “Do I ever judge you. Come on… I’ve seen your sex toys for petes sake!” Yuuri waits to the photos to load, very impatiently. 

“And I’ve seen yours but this is different.” 

“I’ll never judge you. I promise” Yuuri gives Phichit a soft smile, his cheeks dusted with a light pink. “Oh there we go!” He begins to scroll through the newly loaded photos, his smile mildly faltering. “Oh…. Oh I see…” 

“It’s bad right!” 

Yuuri immediately tries to calm his best friend down. This is just like college all over again! “It’s not… too bad… could have definitely been worse?” Yuuri winces sympathetically as he reads the white, ‘Why him..’ text on one of the photos.  _ Oh Phichit… Oh no... _

“I can see in your eyes that you are lying! Yuuuuuri!” Phichit whines and flops back on his bed. 

Yuuri’s arms flail over his face. “I’m not! Look It’s not like you said everything! You could have completely confessed everything!” 

Phichit confesses to Yuuri, he didn’t mean to but he does. “I wanted to.. God I wanted to. I just want to bring him into my arms and kiss him. I want to lean into his touch and lose the world around us. I love him..."

Yuuri’s body fills with fluff and love, his arms tingly from the pure heart in those words. “Why don’t you tell him..?”

Phichit shakes his head and takes a sharp breath. “Because he has a boyfriend, I can’t do that to him.”

“But you aren’t being fair to yourself Peach… You deserve happiness too…” 

“I am happy, I just had a weak moment.” Phichit is still so very ashamed that he let himself get so trashed in sadness, his mother would be horrified. 

“Peach..” Yuuri’s tone is a mild scold for Phichit lying to himself. When this was a mild crush in the old days it was cute and sweet but now it seems that his emotions are ripping him apart.

“Yuuri I promise, I’m not so weak that I am destroying myself simply because I don’t have a partner. There will be other guys.”

“I never said you were weak…” 

“I know, I just mean that I’m strong on my own. I can be myself, I don’t need a partner right now.” 

Yuuri takes a breath and tries to not look with pity, he knows he has a habit of doing that. “Okay… So what are you going to now? Now that the pictures are sent?” 

“Uh.. Well… We will just never talk about it I guess. One day it will be one of those funny stories. Let’s start now, Remember that time..” Phichit chuckles fakely. “I sent my crush drunk pictures!?” 

Yuuri joins in the fake laugh, always the supportive friend.  _ You really aren’t okay Phichit… _


	3. Engagement Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victuuri engagement party. Turns out pretty much as you would expect, drunken shenanigans.

Victor’s parties are always overly extravagant. 

Chris, Phichit and Victor teamed up to make the most ridiculously overpriced and over decorated party anyone has ever seen, they rented a large ballroom in the outskirts of Saint Petersburg with massive chandeliers. Yuuri is only mildly horrified at the extravagance, he has come to accept this part of his fiance. 

They had a small party in Hasetsu with Yuuri’s family, that was more for Yuuri’s family’s benefit but it was small and beautiful. Much more Yuuri’s taste, but now find themselves having party 2.0 in Russia. The guest list includes such names as Jean Jaques Leroy, Yakov Feltsman and Makka’s part time dog walker. 

No one who ever met Victor didn’t receive an invitation. It truly was the event of the year. 

Yuri wanted to complain but he couldn't since Otabek was so happy that his family received an invitation. Early in the night, when everyone was still sober and coherent, Otabek brought his little sister to meet her idol Victor. Yuri almost fainted when he saw the beautiful flush on Otabek’s cheeks as his sister squealed when Victor lifted her into his arms, he fell in love all over again. 

The main party was reasonably family friendly but once the families trickled off, the hard liquor came out. The G rating became R18 real quick. When the second party erupted, only the skaters remained. 

Victor is rather drunk but Yuuri stays mainly sober, not wanting to forget this day. Phichit is a few vodkas in and finds himself cuddling on a tipsy Chris. Otabek is teaching J-J how to DJ while also alternating between kissing Yura and keeping the music going. 

“Great party Yuuuuri! You’re king of the wingman! Oh..” Phichit giggles as he takes a sneaky look at Chris. “I mean great party!” 

Yuuri groans and whines, his arms currently trying to keep Victor’s shirt on. “Phiiichiitt!”

“What!?” Phichit tries to give his most innocent look but ends up giggling and flops against Chris’ arm. “Oops! My bad..”

Chris nuzzles into Phichit’s neck, his drunken mind letting him chase that warm fuzzy feeling he gets from the Thai boy. “It’s all good Peaches.” 

“Oh really?” Phichit winks and sits up, his heart stuttering. “Then maybe I could get a piggy back ride..? Pwease Chrisy.”

Chris chuckles and turns so Phichit can easily climb on to his back. “Of course Little One.”

Phichit smiles widely. “Yay! Thank you!” Phichit climbs on and giggles, he nuzzles into Chris’ curls, he smiles blissfully. 

Chris stands and sets his hands on the lower back of Phichit’s thighs, keeping him in place. His cheeks are no longer flushed from the alcohol but from the fact that Phichit is wrapped around him, his hands hanging around Chris’ neck. He is surprised how easy the smile comes to his face. He’s so.. Happy. 

Just then it’s like Phichit can read Chris’ mind. “I’m so happy!” 

Yuuri smiles at the two playfully trying to shake the other to trip over, he leans into his shirtless and flushed fiance. “They look so cute together, don’t they?”

“As cute as we dooooo!” Victor tugs at Yuuri’s tie and thrusts his tongue into yuuri’s mouth in a sloppy wet motion that still makes both of them tingle. 

Yuuri cries into Victor’s mouth, easily giving him access and falling fully into Victor’s waiting arms, their kiss clearly leading to something that should not be seen by all their friends. 

“Oop there they go Chrispy, all hot wet kissing for victuuruuuuu” With the sexy distraction from the other couple, Phichit is able to throw Chris off balance. They flop to the ground in a jumble of limbs, both giggling and squealing. 

Chris smirks as he looks over at the still kissing couple. “Yuuri isn’t the only one hopelessly lost in that kiss.”

“I want one of those kisses, I want a kiss that makes you forget the world, it’s only you and your partner against the world.. I want a kiss that makes me lose all common sense. I want.. Phichits shirt is hanging open across his chest, the fall having ripped his last remaining button off, he leans closer to Chris with every word, his legs on either side of Chris’ left leg.

Chris’ pink cheeks darken as he freezes, his mouth hanging slightly open. He watches Phichit’s eyes, dark and wanting. He looks at Phichit’s lips and then his eyes, over and over again. “I uh.. Peach?”

Phichit’s voice comes out gravelly and low, such a contrast to his usual voice that Chris feels himself becoming half hard. “Chrisy..” Phichit’s eyes close, his heart in his throat, he can’t help it. It’s so hard to keep the words inside.  _ Please Chris… Kiss me.. _

Chris’ thoughts are the same, he leans a little closer. His breath touching Phichit’s face. “Phichit.”

“Christophe…” 

Chris almost closes the gap, his body tingling with anticipation, their lips only millimeters away. Chris feels sick, his stomach a tight knot. “I can’t.” 

Phichit’s eyes open, despair hardly concealed in his eyes. “I know.. I know.. God I’m sorry.” Phichit stands and covers his face, backing away from Chris. 

“No no I’m sorry! It was my fault…” He sits up and starts dusting himself off as he stands. 

“Nothing happened you know?” He smiles falsely and brushes his dark fringe away from his eyes. “It was just a moment of drunken weakness. Why am I having so many of those lately?”

  
  


Chris rubs his eyes. “Are you talking about the pictures?”

“Oh.. Yeah. Sorry about that, I was so sick that night. Otabek put me to bed.” He laughs nervously, he’s still ashamed of that night.

Chris fidgets with his hands. “C-can I ask something?”

Phichit hides his face behind his hands, his words coming out muffled. “If it’s whether I hit on Otabek… Yeah I did.” 

“Uh- wow! That wasn’t my question but oh wow…” 

Phichit is still hiding behind his hands so he misses the disappointment in Chris’ eyes. “I was really drunk and he was there… Yeah I made a bad choice but luckily he wasn’t dating Yurio at the time.”

Chris winces at the thought of what would have happened to his Peaches.  _ His Peaches? No The Peaches. Phichit.  _ “Yeah… I’d hate to think about little Yuri’s reaction if they were…” 

"I’m pretty sure I would be dead." Phichit laughs and lowers his hands, his eyes finally meeting Chris’ again. “What’s your question? Sorry got side tracked.” 

“Do… Do you have feelings for someone?”  _ Me?  _

  
  


Thank go Phichit is drunk. He blushes so hard that his caramel skin becomes a tomato. “Um.. Well.”  _ Think think think. He won’t believe me if I deny it… Think brain think… Who would be the least troublesome…  _ He looks up and sees J-J, Otabek and Yuri finishing up with the set. The name falls from his lips before he can think it through. “I.. Like… J-J!” 

Chris’ heart drops, his mouth becomes dry and he coughs to hide his outward emotions. “I uh.. Oh.. Okay..” 

Well… May as well pick up that shovel and start digging. “Yeah he’s just so sexy but you know how he’s.. In a relationship.. And I can’t tell him you know, he loves him.. Her! Isabella.” 

What an unfortunate moment for a certain Canadian to sneak up on them. “Really?” He smirks and stands with his hand on his hip. “I can’t say I’m surprised. I mean, I am pretty irresistible.”

Yuri’s face contorts into disgust, he only tolerates J-J near him because he and Otabek are old friends. “PHICHIT! You just went right down in my estimation.” 

Otabek stays silent, he knows Phichit is actually in love with Chris but he would never tell this secret. Yuri is going to kill him...

Just keep digging… “Yeah I just have a thing for hot, tall, Canadian men” Phichit winks at J-J. 

J-J, to his credit, simply winks back and smiles, letting Phichit down nicely. Well I’m flattered but I’m straight love.” 

Chris has backed away a little, feeling a little sick. “I see, I think I need some air.”

J-J wraps an arm around Phichit’s waist and smiles. “But just so you know, If I swung that way… You’d have a chance.” 

Phichit watches as Chris leaves the large room, tears gathering in his eyes. “Oh, thanks Jean.” 

J-J isn’t stupid, just a little clueless sometimes. More like he doesn’t have a filter. “What’s wrong? Oh.. Right. You just be upset that i’m straight and taken. This must be so hard for you, I’m sorry.” J-J brings Phichit to his chest and hugs him. 

It doesn’t matter who the person is, Phichit needs a hug and he will take it from anyone. He clings tightly to J-J’s shirt and sobs.

J-J rubs Phichit’s back and holds him close. “I hope we are still on good terms.”

Phichit is thinking of Chris when he says; “Ye-eah. Me too.  _ Everytime we meet is a disaster. I have to let him go. I almost wish I liked J-J.. It would be easier. _

Chris rushes out onto a balcony of the building, slamming the door behind him as he sinks down forcing himself to take deep breaths. “What am I doing!? Phi… Phichit… I don’t like him.. Not like that. I can’t! I have Masumi at home waiting for me! I can’t let myself get lost in other emotions… This is killing me…”

Phichit whispers in J-J’s arms, “this is killing me…” 


	4. Broken hearts.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ouch...

Phichit is sick to death of moping, it’s been three months since the engagement party and he has well and truely made a fool of himself. It’s the off season and he finds himself bored and moping, he needs to get away from the heat and his thoughts in Thailand. He hasn’t seen Yuuri enough these days. He forgets one important thing as he calls. The time difference. 

* * *

Yuuri and Victor are sleeping in bed, Yuuri is snuggled up against Victor’s back, not quite spooning, more pressed against his fiance. Yuuri’s familiar ringtone starts up, he sits up in confusion and looks at the time. 0156? Why the hell is Phichit calling at this time. 

“Hey Peach? Everything alright? You don’t usually call around this time…” Yuuri rubs his eyes and yawns.

“Can’t a guy just call his best friend for no reason?” 

_ At almost 2am?  _ “Yes, but I know you. What’s going on?”

“Nothing.. Really. I just need some best friend help and an escape from the hotter than hell Thailand. Any chance you could help a brother out? I don’t have much in the way of funds at the moment….” He feels so ashamed that he has to ask for money but he’s still so early in his career and Victor is a millionare. 

Yuuri understands the need to escape, he doesn’t think twice. “Don’t worry about it! You know I’ll do anything for you! Consider it taken care of.”

“Oh you are the best Yuuri! I can be in Saint Petersburg in like 12 hours or so. You’re at training right? Will that end by then?” 

“I’m in bed Phcihit, it’s 2am”

“Oh my gosh sorry! I totally forgot.. Still thinking you are in Japan.”

Yuuri giggles sleepily. “It’s okay, and to asnwer your question, I will be free.”

“Thanks Yuuri, sorry I’ll let you go now.” 

"It’s okay, really. But you should go pack, I’ll send you the tickets.”

“Thanks, see you soon.”

“Bye Phi.” 

The two hang up, Phichit immeditaely begins to pack, giving his mother a kiss and explaining the situation. She smiles gently and nods, always the understanding woman. 

* * *

Yuuri hangs up the phone and turns to his fiance. How on earth is Victor such a heavy sleeper? He never wakes up when Yuuri is wiggling around or apparently loudly chatting to his best friend. Yuuri attempts to wake Victor by shaking his bare shoulder. “Vitya…” No response. Sleepy Yuuri is not someone you want to mess with. “VITYA!”

Victor merely groans and turns over, his arm flopping over Yuuri’s abs. “Whats? 

“Phichit is gonna come stay with us for a little while. In the spare.” 

Victor makes a sleepy noise of sympathy. “Why? He okay? 

“He’s having a little bit of a rough time. He needs a break. I am going to buy his tickets.” 

“Das no good.. Use my credit cards, is fine. Get business class.” He waves one of his hands lazily, his eyes closing. 

Yuuri nods as he reaches for his glasses and leaves the bed to retrieve the card and his laptop, shivering as his feet touch the hardwood.

Victor whines and reaches for his Yuuri. “Nooooo… Yuuuuuuuuri!” 

Yuuri leans over the bed and presses his lips against Victor’s. “Hush Vitya, I’ll be back in a minute, just need to grab your card and the laptop."

Victor mumbles something unintelligable in Russian and smiles sleepily with a little nod. Yuuri runs his fingers through Victor’s hair a couple of times. “Oyasumi Vitya.” He kisses Victor’s forehead, his fiance’s eyes close with a sleepy hum. Yuuri climbs off the bed. 

“Okay… Laptop and credit card.” Retrieves the items and returns to the bed, retreating into the blankets as he boots up the laptop, turning the brightness down as much as he can. Victor’s arm flops back over Yuuri’s stomach in his sleep. Yuuri makes quick work of booking the tickets, emailing them to Phichit and texting the man saying everything is good to go before nuzzling back into the blankets and pulling Viktor close under his own chin, nuzzling into the sliver hair and wrapping his legs with Viktor’s. “Nighty night Vitya.”

* * *

Chris is typing on his laptop on the living room couch, his kitty laying over his non dominant arm. Masumi was attempting to cook but he stares at the ingredients like they are personally offending him, something isn’t right and he doesn’t feel as comfortable as he once did. “Christophe, I think we should talk.” 

Chris doesn’t look up from his computer as he attempts to finish a very important email to his coach. “Huh? What’s up?” 

“That. That right there is what is up. What is with you?” 

Chris is taken aback by the seeminly out of the blue snarkiness. He looks up in confusion. “What do you mean? Nothing’s up with me.”

Masumi sighs, needing Chris to understand. “What were we supposed to do yesterday?”

Chris blinks a few times as he desperately tries to think back, he’s had a lot on his mind lately. “I uh..” He falls silent, knowing any words will probably make this worse. 

“Exactly, we had planned a date and you cancelled for skating practice. I know you are busy and I take what I can get but I’m sick of having a relationship where you don’t put aside any time for me anymore. You cancelled on monday too remember? To go to Victor’s engagement party. You didn’t even think to invite me…” 

Chris does remember Monday, Masumi can’t really be blaming that on him can he? Chris is the best man! “You said you’d go along without me! That your friends were going to be there and you wanted to go with them! I figured since you already had plans…”

“Do you have any idea how embarrassed I was, turning up to a double date without you?”

“Then why did you go??”

Masumi’s heart breaks, he really thought Chris would understand, does he know him at all? “Because you left me Chris! You shut me out and I didn’t know what to do.” 

“Talk to me! I can’t know if I'm doing something wrong unless you bloody tell me! But no, you hide behind that half-assed smile of yours instead.” 

Now Chris is a tall, strong man, when they fight, Masumi often gets scared so they came up with a rule. Chris needs to keep his voice down during fights. “First of all, stop yelling at me… I try to talk to you and all you do is brush me off and run off with your friends.” 

_He’s really annoyed that I spend time with my friends? It’s not like he helps me relax after working for six months straight! They know how I feel._ “Well at least they care about the things in my life than my fucking routines.”

“Woah you know that’s not fair…. You don’t talk to me either and when I do you always say you are too tired to talk.”

“I gave up talking when you kept changing the subject back to skating. Trying to get you to talk about anything else, especially lately, is exhuasting.”

Chris’ cat chooses this moment to scramble off Chris’ lap, clearly sensing the fight will not end well.

“Can you really blame me? It’s the off season and I’m working my ass off to get your routines perfect but you can’t even tell me what your theme is!”

It’s true that Chris has been struggling with his routines this year, he wants to surprise people but at the same time he doesn’t have the inspiration right now. “And you think barking at me about skating and routines and themes every second of the day is going to somehow miraculously inspire me?!”

“You have to give me something to go off! You give me nothing or just a pinch. I’m so tired of always being second best to everyone around you. Even sex wise! I’ve always been second go to Victor and even that Phichit!” 

Now Chris is mad, very mad. This is between them and his friends will not be part of this. It’s also true that Victor was better but Chris never told Masumi that, they had the love, unlike him and Victor. Phichit has never once been brought up. “What are you talking about?!”

“Oh come on, we all know you like him. It’s no secret, and I’m not a prude, I don’t care that you find other guys hot but, when you are clearly more attracted to them.. It hurts… It hurts so much. I love you Christophe.”

Chris stays silent, his body shaking as he barely contains his emotions.  _ You don’t act like it… Not unless I’m under your control... _

“I’ve seen the pictures Christophe, normally, when you feel up other guys, I don’t care, it’s just you and I won’t change you but… Phichit.” He brings up a photo of Chris and Phichit, Phichit is flopped over chris’ shoulders, Chris’ hand on his butt playfully. Both clearly estatic, they're smiling widely. It was taken at the engagement party. “It’s been a long time since you looked at me like that.”

“Phichit is just a really close friend, Masumi! He means nothing compared to you!”  _ Wait… I don’t mean that… Phichit means…. Something... _

“He clearly means something to you. Look this isn’t just about Phichit, we haven’t had sex in like five months and you are looking pretty damn satisfied! I’m not convinced that you have fully stopped having sex with Victor.” 

Chris can’t believe he is hearing these things from Masha’s lips. Everyone sees him as this promiscuous man and someone who is likely to cheat. He never thought Masumi would throw that in his face. Such a low blow. He says a tad too calmly, “I haven’t been with Viktor since before he found Yuuri, that was over a year ago. You’re looking too far into things. I’ve just been really focused on other things aside from skating.” 

“Oh yeah like what!? I’ve only been doing your routines, costumes, transport and feeding your cat!”

“Oh you know, like what I’m going to do after I have to retire?! I’ll be going into a world with little to no job experience and I didn’t go to college fresh out of high school so that I could compete! I’m trying to catch up.” Chris thought his college courses would would be the main cause of friction between them but apparently he was mistaken. It would seem that he is a cheating slut with not enough time to have actual sex. 

“You think I don’t know how hard that is? Are you forgetting that I was an ice dancer through all my youth!”

“But you were given the opportunity to get an education! You had every little thing given to you! I wasn’t allowed to do anything else because my skating put food on the table and kept my little sister on her medication! I dropped my whole life for this! For them! I think I deserve some time to focus on myself outside of skating!”

Masumi takes a deep breath and feels the sadness pushing through his anger. “That’s true, you do and that’s not unreasonable. I just.. I miss you so much and I feel like I’m losing you a little more everyday and I feel like crying all the time nowadays.” 

“You aren’t losing me. I just have to focus… I just need some more time…” Chris walks up to his boyfriend and cups Masumi’s cheek gently, with pleading eyes.

Masumi leans into the touch for a second. “I’m not young anymore Chris, I want to settle down and spend time with you but you’re so unreachable, you look so happy with your friends and not me…” He tears up and flops on the arm of the couch, his head dropping down, brown hair covering his eyes.

“And we can! I’m not saying we won’t ever have time… I have finals I need to prepare for. And then as soon as they are over, we’ll have all the time in the world.”

“As soon as they are over we have to start training for the grand prix, plus any local competitions you want to show your face at.” Masumi rubs his eyes and falls silent, slipping down to the couch cushions and sinking into the leather. 

The two fall into silence, the air heavy. Chris speaks up first. 

“Masumi… This isn’t working… I need you here as my h- partner… Not my choreographer…” Chris berates himself for almost slipping at this horrendous time.

“It’s so hard to be both these days….” 

“Then don’t.” Chris comes to sit next to Masumi, pulling his head to his shoulder.

Masumi sighs and lifts his head. “Maybe you are right, maybe we should take a break. From us…”

Chris feels himself go cold with dread, apparently Masumi picked choreographer over partner. “Wh-what?”

Masumi sits up with tears in his eyes and cups Chris’ cheek gently. “I can’t go on like this.” _ It’s draining us both.  _

“You’re… Breaking up with me.” Chris says, sadly and matter of factly.

Masumi croacks out the single word as he touches their foreheads togther. “Yes.”

Hot tears fall from Chris’ eyes, they had been brimming for a while and now are falling uncontrollably. “You- You can’t… Masha, please don’t…” 

“Chris baby… You know I love you but I can’t do this to myself, it hurts so much to see you in love.. I mean.. Spending time with someone else.” Masumi kisses Chris super gently, his wet cheek pressing to Chris’ as he pulls away. He memorizes how the kiss feels, he can’t forget his last kiss. “I love you..” He says through a hiccuping sob. 

“Then stay with me! Chris is now openly sobbing, not caring that his make up is running and his eyes look worse than after a red eye flight. “Work through this with me! Please don’t leave me… I can’t… I can’t do this without you!!” He panic overtakes his reason, he can’t let this relationship go even though it’s not working. His love for Masumi is.. Was real and he can still greive for the loss.

“Baby don’t do this to me.. I’d stay in a minute but this is something we can’t work through. You need to do this on your own and I can’t let myself be hurt while you sort this out.” 

“But! Please! I love you! Please don’t!” In his own way he really means it, Masumi is an important pillar of his life.

“Chris. Tell me I'm wrong.” He gives Chris a chance and takes Chris’ face in his hands. “Tell me I'm wrong and I’ll stay as your boyfriend. Tell me Phichit means nothing, tell me you will make more time for us, tell me.. Tell me that you still love me. Tell me honestly.” 

Chris opens his mouth to speak, but freezes, his thoughts betraying what he knows Masumi wants to hear, he sobs even harder, breaking down fully and clutching himself to Masumi’s chest, wailing, mourning. 

Masumi takes a deep albeit shaky breath. “I knew.. I’ve known for awhile now but I didn’t want to leave you.” 

“And I don’t want to leave you…” In a moment of desperation he reaches for his pocket.

“But you don’t love me.. We don’t have a future anymore..” 

He pulls out the ring, not in a box from his pocket. A final plea. “We- We could…”

Masumi’s whole being goes cold, he gasps as tears fall. His resolve falters and he so wishes he could just say yes and get married, this will only be a bad memory. “Christophe… I want to say yes I really do I really really do. I just… I can’t marry someone who doesn’t love me. Why do you even have a ring… You don’t love me.. Why did you.. Why..” He clings tightly, his arms wrapped around Chris, his hands bunched up in Chris’ shirt.

“You… You mean everything to me too… I wanted… I wanted you to be happy…” 

“I want you to be happy too, I know that if we did marry, you would be upset down the line. I want a baby and I won’t bring one into a family that doesn’t love each other.”

“But.. Masha..” Chris gives up and sniffles, clinging tightly to the last few minutes of domestic normality. 

“Can you honestly say that you would always be happy with me forever?” 

“I… I don’t know…”

"I’m sorry Chris. I’m so sorry. I can remain your choreographer but I think I need to move away for a bit.”

Chris takes a deep breath, knowing he won’t be able to change his boyfrien- ex boyfriend's mind. “Y-you don’t have to… I’ll go… I have a place I can stay set up in Russia… Victor has a spare room.”

And just when Masumi thought they would leave on good terms… How could he do this right now!? “Oh yes.. Victor… I thought as much.” 

_ Really… he really wants to start that shit up now!  _ "It’s not like that! He’s just a friend!" He spits out, so tired of the same argument over and over. 

"I'm sure.." Masumi stands his hands coming up in front of him, he takes a deep breath. "I want us to leave on good terms so I'm staying in a hotel tonight while you pack up and visit your russian boyfriend. Maybe you can have a party with your Thai one too!" He adds for good measure. 

"Masumi! Stop that! That isn’t fair! Not to me and not to them!" 

"Neither is you not telling me you don’t love me! Keeping me here while dreaming of someone else!" 

"You aren’t understanding what I’m saying! I have NEVER stopped loving you!" Chris is desperate now, he feels sick with dread. He hates that he is being told what his feelings are, it's not fair. 

"Not as much as we used to, not as much as I love you." 

Chris takes a moment of silence, his anger shaking him from the inside. "I guess not then, I'm nothing. I'm not good enough. Apparently you know my feelings better than me so I guess I'll agree then."

Angry tears flood Masumi's cheeks as he tells Chris everything, what the tipping point was. "I still love you! But you call out a name in your sleep that isn’t me." He mimics moaning as he says, "'Oh Peaches… Peaches… Little one!' I tried not to think about it but when it happens every night… I won’t let myself die inside anymore." 

Chris looks both sad and mad at the same time, more sad than anything as he looks to Masumi one last time. "I’m sorry." 

Masumi is fighting his hate and his grief, he hugs Chris one last time. Chris kisses his hair, he clings to Masumi's jacket. "I’m so sorry. I gotta go. I’ll always love you Chris… Bye.." He wipes his eyes as he walks to the door. Chris' arms remain as they were around Masumi, holding on to the air. "Goodbye Masha…" 

* * *

Chris wakes up alone on his couch, his cheeks and eyes burning. Baby sits beside his face in a little ball. "Hey Baby.." He coughs, his throat raw from the sleeping and screaming. He sits up and puts his hands on his knees with his head dropped down. The loneliness is too much, he needs his friend. He packs two bags and sets them on his bed, he gives a quick call to Baby's second pet sitter before calling calling Victor.

Victor answers immediately. "Hey! Chris! If you want some more Eros advice, my Yuuri is out at the moment but I'm sure I can help in that area."

"V-Victor..." Chris tries hard to keep it together but the image of Masumi leaving floods him again and his voice cracks.

Victor hears the pain and is immediately all business. "Chris! Mon amie what happened?"

"Mas-Masumi… We- broke up."

"What!? Oh my god what happened? What about the ring.. Oh Chris." Victor had of course known about the ring, he knew it wasn't a good idea but he also knows Chris' heart is breaking right now. 

Chris sniffles over the phone, he gives into the pain. "I ca-can’t do this…" 

"Come here, I’ll book you a flight. We have the spare room."

"O-Okay…" 

Victor clicks a fee buttons on his laptop. "Aaaand booked. I’ll send your tickets to you. Oh I can even check youi in, can you get to the airport in under an hour? Then just do bag drop." 

Chris nods even through Victor can't see it. "Yeah… Okay… Thanks…."

"Right okay I'll see you then. With wine and ice cream."

Chris chuckles through tears, wiping his nose on his sleeve. "Okay, I have to go… Bye Vitya…" He immediately hangs up and grips his bags. 

"Bye darling… Oh.." He realises the phone line went dead and sighs. "Oh Chris.."


	5. The couch.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh Victor... always forgetting.

Phichit flops into the taxi’s seat, his head almost immediately dropping. Yuuri puts Phichit’s bags into the boot and climbs in beside Phichit, he brings Phichit’s head to his shoulder and buckles him in. “I’m so tiiiireeeeddd. I missed you!” 

Yuuri chuckles and immediately leans over a bit to make Phichit more comfortable.

“Much better” Phichit wraps his arms around Yuuri’s waist and lays his head in the crook of Yuuri’s neck. “Such a good friend to me…”

“Hey! When did I get demoted! I’m not a good friend. I’m a best friend!”

Phichit gives a tired smirk. “Always, please excuse tired Phichit who hasn’t slept for around 24 hours.” He turns his face over and pecks Yuuri’s shoulder in apology.

Yuuri immediately wraps his arms around Phichit, he snuggles close and kisses Phichit’s hair in a friendly manner. “I know I know, I’m just teasing Peach…”

Phichit sticks his tongue out half heartedly and Yuuri chuckles. The two sit quietly in the taxi, Yuuri’s house is right out of the city so it’s a fourty five minute drive. Yuuri suspects Phichit has fallen asleep after twenty minutes of silence but really he is in a light doze. Phichit mumbles quietly, some information that Yuuri already knows. “I have a silly crush…”

Yuuri smirks.  _ Well yeah, duh. _ “Who is it?”

“Same as the old days... It just got worse when he announced that he has a boyfriend and has actually had one for about a year and didn’t tell anyone.”

Yuuri blinks and thinks back, there was only one person that was ever mentioned by Phichit in a romantic fashion. “No… Chris!?”

Phichit nods and hides his face in Yuuri’s neck. Yuuri processes, he had no idea that Chris had a boyfriend. He’s always flirting and having fun but apparently he’s taken. “Wait. Chris has a boyfriend? Who?”

“Yep. Some asshole with floppy hair. He looks like a 1990’s indie band member, one that sung at the back. I think his name was Masumu or something. I didn’t care I just ran off and got wasted.”

“I don’t blame you.. Jeeze. It must have been such a shock. Why didn’t you say anything? I’m your best friend Phichit.” 

"I didn’t want Chris to know and Victor is so close to him. I figured Otabek would have said something to everyone…” Phichit looks up at Yuuri, gratefulness in his eyes that Otabek kept his mouth shut.

“What does Otabek have to do with this?!!”

“When I got drunk, Otabek put me to bed and I’m about 70% sure that I hit on him. Actually… 100%” Phichit’s cheeks become dusted with pink, maybe this is some information he should have shared over the phone. 

“On Otabek?! Wait! Wasn’t that when he started dating Yuri?” Yuuri’s eyes take on that same terrified ‘deer in the headlights' look that Chris gave when he found out. 

“They were just friends back then but it was still a bad decision and please do not tell Plisetsky.” 

“I know better than that! He’d kill you!”

“Yeah, I know. I just didn’t know what to do… He sprung that on me in the middle of a crowded ballroom.”

Yuuri shakes his head with a sigh. “You really do need a break.” 

“And some Russian dick…”

Yuuri gasps and smacks Phichit, only half way playing. “Phichit~!!”

“Not Victor! If that makes it any better.”

Yuuri chuckles. “You know the rules. Just be safe…” 

“I know, I know. I would ask you like the old days buuut I don’t think Victor is inclined to share.”

“Uh.. Yeah Probably not.” Yuuri’s cheeks darken as he remembers the one or two times he had some sexy fun times with Phichit during heartbroken or lonely times. 

Phichit remembers it too. “I can’t believe my backup is gone.. Remember our pact?” 

Yuuri smiles and nods. “Of course I do. If we both made it to 40 and we weren’t married, we’d marry each other!”

“It looks like I'm going to end up an old maid…” Phichit sighs and puts a hand to his forehead. “Oh woe is me.” 

“Oh stop being so dramatic! You’ll find someone!”

Phichit sighs, his eyes heavy with sleep. “I did.. When I was a young boy full of hope.. And he has a boyfriend.. Too young and too slow..”

“There are other people out there, Peach.”

“Not all of us can marry our childhood idols I guess.” 

“It was a fluke…” 

Phichit really isn’t in the mood to head back into sadness mode. “It was incredible luck, on Victor’s part, of course.”

Yuuri pouts, random compliments are too much. “Yeah right! As if!”

“You’re amazing Yuuri, I promise and I would never lie to you. About this anyway.” 

Yuuri’s bottom lip pops out a little more. “Then what have you lied to me about?!”

“I  **do** have Yuuri posters in my room in Thailand. I just didn’t want to freak you out.”

Yuuri is blushing so fucking hard, reaching up to cover and hide behind his hands. His voice comes out whiny and embarrassed. “Phichit….”

“Aww. Oh look there’s your new house right!?” Phichit points out the window as the cab slows. 

Yuuri nods with a soft smile, his cheeks still red. “Yeah… This is it!”

“Yay!” He hops out of the car, grabbing his bag and he bounds into the house. “Victooooor, your husband is home!”

Victor chuckles as he appears around the corner, his striped long sleeved shirt riding up over his left hip. He walks to Phichit and hugs him briefly. “Hey Phichit!” Yuuri drops Phichit’s bags by the door and greets his excited fiance. “Hey, Zoloste.” 

Yuuri giggles and leans into Victor’s touch, his lips brushing against Victor’s cheek in a greeting kiss. “Hi Vitya.” 

Victor pushes Yuuri back by the shoulders, his eyes lit up. “That’s right, I forgot to tell you something.” 

Yuuri looks warily at the tone and look of guilt in Viktor’s eyes. “What…?"

The door opens behind them and Phichit’s heart drops into his stomach when he sees… “Chris..” 

“Phichit…”

Yuuri puts his hands on his hips and growls at Victor. “Victor!”

“Yuuri!”

“Donkey!” Phichit yells in an attempt to lighten the mood. At least Yuuri starts chuckling, Victor looks so guilty he can’t manage more than a loud exhale. Chris falls silent for a minute, processing.

“Hey.. So, uh... Whats... Going on here..?”

Yuuri takes a deep breath. “It seems my dear, dear fiance here has failed to mention that Chris would be staying with us.” He gives Victor a seething fake smile of annoyance. 

Victor rubs the back of his neck. “Uh.. It happened so fast… You were at practice…”

Yuuri sighs and places a finger and thumb on the bridge of his nose. “Vitya…” 

“I’m sooorrryyyy.” Victor whines and gives Yuuri his best puppy dog eyes. To which, Yuuri scoffs and smiles. 

“Hey hey, We’re adults! We can figure this out… I can take the couch!” Chris finds his voice and calmly smiles as he speaks.

“Uh… Actually the couch hasn’t been moved to the new house yet.” Victor is so annoyed that his forgetfullness left him down again. 

“And it won’t be here for another few days I’m afraid… There was a mix up.” 

“Good ol’ Russian values huh?” Victor chuckles. 

“Is there another spare room? Or.. just the one…” Phichit asks and brings his bags closer to himself. 

“There is another room that is planned to be a spare room… But we don’t have anything for it yet. No furniture or anything. So for now, just the one.”

“It’s where Makka sleeps.” Victor adds. 

“It’s okay! We can be roomates! I’m a good roommate, just ask Yuuri.” 

Chris smiles shyly. “Yeah we’re roommates!”

Yuuri comments under his breath with wide eyes. “Oh my god… And they were roommates!”

“You read too much fanfiction.” Phichit says with a nervous chuckle. 

Yuuri pouts. “Do not!! Anyway… Does that work for both of you?” He throws a concerned wide eyed glance to Phichit… Knowing Chris is his love.

Phichit smirks, his good natured humor coming to the surface once more. He turns to Chris. "As long as you don't mind the stench of failure and loneliness in your room."

Chris giggles lightly and sniffles. "Only if you don’t mind the scent of heartbreak and depression…" 

Phichit feels a twinge in his heart but smiles anyway. "Oh, the perfect combination. He picks up his bags and begins to hike up the staircase, he trips a little on the carpeted stairs on his way up. A giggle slipping out as he trips. 

Chris chuckles as he watches Phichit shake off the trip and clamber all the way up.  _ Maybe this won’t be so bad…  _ He thinks as he follows with his own bag thrown over his shoulder. 

  
  


Victor takes Yuuri's hand and kisses it. "I really am sorry, but this won’t be a big deal right? Chris just had a hard break up." 

Yuuri thinks, a finger on his lips. Temporarily looking away from Victor's puppy eyes. "A bad break up huh? Actually I think this will be the best thing. They both can help each other while we’re busy."  _ And maybe hook up... _

Victor tackles Yuuri in an octopus hug. "That sounds perfect my very understanding fiance." 

_ You got very, very lucky Vitya..  _ Yuuri nuzzles under Victor's chin, he wraps his arms around his fiance's slim waist, breathing in the sweet scent of his cologne. He giggles and looks up. "The couch is in the garage, isn't it?

Victor places a finger to his mouth and smiles. "Possibly…"


	6. Day out.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two separate days out with very different results.

Phichit drops his bag on the carpet beside the right side of the bed before flopping on the nearest bit of mattress he can reach. “Mind if I take the right side? Cause it’s mine now.” He mumbles into the blankets. 

Chris chuckles nervously, he never sleeps on the right. His partners always have. “Th-that’s fine with me… I need to do some work on my laptop, that alright?”

“Yeah sure, I bet you have a lot to sort out.. I’m sorry.” Phichit crawls up the bed and throws off his shoes and jeans before pulling the blankets over his legs, he props himself up on the pillow and looks at Chris. 

“It’ll be alright… I loved him… but he was right… Things just weren’t working between us…”

“I won’t pry but I’m here for you, you know? Always. Even if our every meeting stays a disaster… I’ll hang around.”

Chris blinks in confusion. “What do you mean by that, Peach?

Phichit cringes. “Well it seems I lose a lot of common sense after a few shots and well.. First time I sent you weird pics and then couldn’t face you oh and then the fiasco at the engagement party when I decided to declare my undying love for Jean Jaques Leroy…”

“Were you really being serious?” Chris strips to only his tight red underwear and climbs into bed beside Phichit, he pulls the blankets up to his waist. His chest remains in full view. 

Thank god Phichit’s complexion hides blushing well, he has to look away before it gets worse. “No. I wasn’t. He’s a friend but nothing more. If I were to actually declare my love it wouldn’t be by yelling it to him by accident.” Phichit rubs the back of his neck. “And then there was that.. Almost kiss… I do rather enjoy making a fool of myself.” 

“You don’t make a fool of yourself.” He scoffs, “I do that enough for the both of us.”

Phichit flops fully on to his pillow and looks up at Chris. “How? You’re always perfect.”

“Trust me… I have my share of faults” He pauses and grimaces as he relives everything that has gone wrong, especially over the last few days.

“You always seem perfect around me.”

Chris smiles softly, the smile tinged by sadness as he boops Phichit’s nose. “Out of necessity.”

Phichit giggles and playfully swats, his nose scrunched up cutely. “What do you mean?” 

“I hide a lot from everyone around me. Not you necessarily.. But when I’m with you it also means I’m with fans and sponsors and officials. I have to be perfect, I have to maintain my persona. Just like everyone does.”

“We are alone now, you can be yourself.”

“I know I can.” He smiles gently and ruffles Phichit’s hair. “But I’m not ready to face everything quite yet. Wait for me?”

“Always.” Phichit rubs his eyes, the dryness beginning to betray his exhaustion. “When you touch my ass is that for cameras or for you?” 

“Well I do have a certain...Reputation to uphold I guess…”  _ With you it’s always been different _ .

“Oh I see…” Phichit’s sleepy blush is quite possibly the most beautiful thing Chris has ever seen, he barely registers the request. “One more question?” He can’t hide a yawn. 

“Okay and then sleeps for the sleepy Peach.” 

“Okay, okay.” Phichit pouts, but can’t manage to keep it, and ends up giving a sleepy giggle. “I have to know.. Um.. At the engagement party… We almost kissed but you stopped it. If you hadn’t.. I mean if you were single. Would you have still pushed me away?” 

Chris thinks for a moment before brushing Phichit’s hair back from his face. “I… No. No, I wouldn’t have.” 

“Thank you.” Cue a sleepy, shy, Phichit smile. 

“You’re welcome.. Sleep now. I’ll turn out my light and the brightness of my laptop down. If you need me to leave while I work, just let me know.” 

Phichit lazily waves his hand. “Na, it’s okay, I can sleep anywhere except the plane. Just ask Yuuri.” He smiles once more as he closes his eyes. Chris watches as he begins snoring almost immediately, his hand limp by his face. He chuckles quietly and brushes Phichit’s hair back once more, his eyes on the sleeping boy for a few more minutes before he turns to his laptop and begins finishing one of his online essays. His eyes can’t help falling back to the sleeping Phichit beside him, a fond smile on his lips. 

Phichit smiles in his sleep and shuffles just a little closer to Chris, the blanket falling down his arm. Goosebumps on his skin start to rise and he shivers a little in his sleep, enough to catch Chris’ attention. 

Chris shakes his head and whispers. “Oh Peaches… What am I going to do with you” He takes the blanket and pulls it up to Phichit’s chin, tucking it there with a gentle pass of the backs of his fingers across Phichit’s cheek.

Phichit leans into the touch and lays his head on Chris’ hand, a little drool slipping from his lips and dripping across the pale skin.

Chris is obviously taken aback but can’t help but laugh at the precious Peach before going back to work one handed. Moving a Peach sleeping on him would be just as bad as moving his kitty when she is sleeping on him. A crime against humanity. 

Chris smirks as he finishes the work and looks at Phichit, not being able to help himself as he reaches for his phone, lines up the shot, and takes a photo, wanting to cherish this for a while.

In fantastic Phichit fashion, he snores loudly once very unattractively just when Chris is thinking how cute he is. 

Chris can barely hold his laughter back. “Oh Peach..” He sighs and nuzzles down under the covers as well, facing Phichit. “Goodnight, Little one.” 

* * *

Phichit’s eyes feel so much better when they finally open, the sleep did him good. He looks around in front of him, the walls covered with pictures of Victor and Yuuri, clearly Victor’s idea. Phichit giggles and sighs as he stretches in the bed, his limbs heavy but gradually coming back to life. He yawns and sits up, the sheet falling to his hips as he looks over to where Chris was sleeping beside him. His heart feels like a hamster running in a cage as he runs his hand over the cool fabric in Chris’ spot, he leans over and rests his head there for a minute before realising just how weird he is.  _ Should I get dressed? I’m pretty sure Victor and Chris will be nude…  _ He spots two hanging bathrobes on the back of the room door, Chris apparently didn’t want one. Now, Phichit is not body shy but at the same time, could he really be in close proximity to touchy Chris and Victor without having issues? He blushes and grabs the robe, covering himself loosely. He picks his phone up but it dies in front of his eyes. “Crap!”  _ Forgot to charge it overnight.  _ He grabs the charger from his bag and plugs it beside the bed, he has to leave his phone there while he has breakfast. That’s not easy for someone like Phichit, especially knowing that at least two sexy skaters will be mostly nude. 

Chris is pottering around the kitchen with Victor, the other early riser. They laugh as they prepare eggs for the other two. Victor drops an egg on the floor and then has to chase Makka away from the raw egg she desperately wants to munch on. “Makka! No, you’ll get salmonella, you’ve had one too many near death experiences thank you very much.” Chris chuckles and cleans up the egg while Victor chases her away, she’s very determined to get that egg. Victor puts some kibble in her bowl and pats her soft little head as she begins to eat. “She’s so naughty.” Chris laughs and gets a pout from Victor for his trouble. 

“She’s perfectly well behaved actually.” He sticks his tongue out and starts cracking another egg for the pan. Both he and Chris are wearing only their tight underwear while they cook, it’s good to have his cooking buddy back. Victor nudges Chris. “How’d you sleep?” 

Chris blushes as he remembers Phichit sleeping cutely on his hand. “It was alright, I had trouble getting Masumi out of my head.” 

Victor tilts his head to the side with a sad expression. He asks lowly, “do you still have the ring?” Chris looks away and nods. “Let’s go to the beach, just you and me. Oh wait and Makka, she loves the beach.” Chris perks up and smiles at his best friend, he knew he had made the right choice coming here. 

Light footsteps patter down the stairs, the two cooks turn to Phichit and smile. “Hey Phichit, you’re third up. I’ve made eggs.” 

Phichit blushes at the two nudists in the kitchen, he is so very lucky. “Thanks, got any kale too?” 

Chris lifts his own pan and shows the green leaves. “Way ahead of you Peaches.” Phichit smiles and approaches the kitchen. 

“Yuuri should be up soon, can you set the table please Phichit?” Victor gestures to the plate cupboard, Phichit enthusiastically nods his head and begins taking the plates out and laying them on the table. “What time does Yuuri usually get up.” 

Victor looks up at the clock and sighs. “Ten minutes ago, he is not a morning person, so this should be fun.” Victor turns his pan off and heads upstairs, most likely to drag his fiance down. 

Chris serves Phichit first with a smile. “More kale sir?” 

Phichit giggles. “I demand it, maybe some caviar on top?” 

Chris scoffs. “You know Victor only has that for special occasions, he has like ten jars from different places and never eats it, it must be a show of his wealth.” Chris winks and serves the other plates before sitting down beside Phichit. “How’d you sleep?” He asks the boy. Phichit smiles, “Really good thanks. I feel so much better. I didn’t know you were an early riser?” “I spent a year training with Victor when I had my first year in seniors. If you weren’t an early riser, you got no breakfast. Or shower.” Chris picks up his fork and begins to eat, Phichit meanwhile stares at his food, while it’s tempting and he’s starving, he just feels so uncomfortable eating when not everyone is present. 

“Don’t you like it?” Chris drops his fork, concern etched into his face. 

“Oh, no. I’m just a good little Thai boy, I can’t eat until Yuuri gets his lazy ass down here.” His stomach growls and the food smells so good, he drops his head to the table. While Chris completely respects the Thai custom that Phichit is adhering to, it is very funny to watch the boy struggling between scoffing his food and whining for Yuuri to hurry. 

“It’s so good.” 

“Chrrrrriiiisssss!” 

“Sorry.” 

Phichit pouts at Chris, his head still on the table. “No you’re not.” 

“Sure I am.” Chris ruffles Phichit’s hair playfully and gets back to eating. Phichit is frozen, he can still feel that intoxicating hand in his hair, the gentle touch. It’s like he’s just taken a shot of tequila, the heat spreading from his head to his toes. He looks at Chris, pure adoration clear in his dark pupils.

Yuuri and Victor stumble down the stairs,  _ finally _ , Phichit thinks to himself. He sits up and looks at his half clothed friend sitting in front of him. “Good morning Yuuri!” Phichit says cheerfully and finally digs into his food. 

Yuuri mumbles and swats at his fiance who is currently trying to feed him. “Vittyyyaaa, we have guests.” Victor kisses Yuuri’s cheek and smiles so widely it must hurt. 

Phichit and Chris look at each other and blush, the sweetness is so pure and beautiful it makes their hearts hurt. Right now, although beautiful, Yuuri is a mess. His hair is sleep tousled, his shirt is ripped and those can’t be his best boxers. Nonetheless, Victor, who looks like a fashion model from dawn to dusk, looks at his fiance as though he is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen.  _ That’s love.  _

Phichit looks at Chris again. Chris is eating, a slight pink still remaining on his cheeks, his curls are in disarray. His arm has a pale bruise from skating and his eyes are bloodshot, tear trails still bright pink on his cheeks, and yet, he is the most beautiful thing Phichit has ever seen. 

Once Yuuri has eaten and showered, he is in a far better mood and links his arm in Phichit’s. “Let’s go to the market, we can have lunch there too.” 

Phichit practically jumps out of his skin in excitement. “Yes! I’m so excited! My phone is charged, let’s go!” He yanks on Yuuri’s arms. Yuuri laughs and manages to pull an arm free, immediately wrapping it around his fiance. “Bye Victor, see you soon.” 

“Bye Chris!” 

And with that, they are gone. 

Victor gets Makka ready to go to the beach, the fluffy poodle knows the word ‘Beach’ now so she is currently running around the living room in her excitement. Chris laughs as Victor finally gets a grip on her and clips her leash on. Victor wipes sweat from his brow and grabs his phone from the counter. “I think she’s excited for the B.E.A.C.H.” 

Chris scoffs, “Well yeah, I got that.” He leans down and gave her little head a rough pat to her delight. “She’s so cute. Reminds me of Phichit.” 

Victor raises an eyebrow. “You think Phichit is a cute, excitable poodle?” 

Chris stutters and opens the door. “S-Shall we go?” “Sure.” Victor barely contains his poodle in the race to the car.  _ Phichit is pretty cute..  _ Chris smiles.  _ Is it weird to miss a friend so much?  _

* * *

Phichit drags Yuuri from stall to stall, spending far too much money on things he believes are ‘super cool.’ Yuuri knew this would happen so he mentally prepared himself. The selfies happen every few stalls or so at the market, every so often they would find a fan and take selfies with them too. The last two girls giggled the whole time in glee, Yuuri still isn’t used to people thinking he is famous. He just can’t wrap his head around it. 

Phichit has thoroughly worn Yuuri out by the time they sit down for lunch in a beautiful little restaurant. “How do you have this much energy after a 12 hour flight?” “I had a power nap.” Phichit answers simply. Yuuri has tried that but Phichit is one of a kind apparently, he only needs a few hours of sleep to get his motor running once more. 

“So, this must be weird huh?” Yuuri asks when the waitress brings them their drinks. Phichit sips his drink and raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” 

“Well, you like Chris and now, you’re sleeping with him.” 

Although it’s not said in  _ that _ way, Phcihit’s heart still flutters at the thought of him and Chris  _ sleeping together.  _ “It’s really great, I’m so happy Yuuri, honest. Thanks for taking me in.” 

“You’re welcome.” Yuuri smiles and leans over the table. 

“You didn’t hit on him did you? He’s still going through stuff.” 

“Yuuri, I would never do that to anyone in his position. I can behave.” 

“Mhmm..” They go back to talking about movies they have seen recently and Phichit’s hamsters. It turns out Yuuri has been thinking of getting a puppy for their little family and Phichit is thinking about getting his hamsters a bigger cage since they keep escaping. They pay the bill while Yuuri rolls his eyes at Phichit’s stories. “Oh I really hope mama can control them.” 

_ Sigh... _

  
  


* * *

Victor throws a stick down the beach and laughs as Makka skids through the sand to reach it, her little barks of excitement make his heart so full. Chris sits on the dryer sand on a little hill, just watching and smiling. Victor throws a few sticks to keep Makka occupied while he sits by Chris on the sand. Both look to the sparkling ocean, the air is cool but the sun is out, just right for fluffy Makka. 

_ Where did it all go wrong? How did I end up here, on a bank with my best friend. I want contact but that’s not the real me, it is but it isn’t. I don’t want those I love to think of me as a touchy caricature of myself. Why didn’t Masumi understand? Why didn’t he listen? Why did he leave me?  _

  
  


* * *

**11 Years ago**

Chris stood on the platform to Victor’s right, a silver medal around his neck. He did well and is very proud of himself, his sister would have been so proud to see him here. 

_ S _ _ ofia, I’m here for you. Always.  _

He kissed his medal, tears dripped onto it. This was his first year performing without his sister being in this world, he started this to pay for her medicine but she convinced him to keep going when she realised he loved it. “You beat that Victor Nikiforov, _Chrisy_.” 

Chris smiled, the tears still fell as he remembered his promise, just to be as good as him. 

Victor looked down in concern but was whisked away by his coach. Chris was 14, so very young and innocent, he didn’t find his image until many years after. He took his skates off, he’s alone on the bleacher when someone sat beside him. Another young boy with brown hair. “Hi, I’m in the ice dance division, you are really good with your presentation.” 

Chris looked up and smiled at the compliment, he knew this boy. Masumi Allaman, 14 year old ice dancer from France. Best in his division. “Hey, Christophe Giacometti.” 

“Masumi Allaman.” The boys shook hands before looking down at the floor, Chris finished untying his skate and zipped them both up in his bag. 

“So, are you staying here long?” Masumi asked. 

“I’m leaving in a few hours, my cat is sick so I'm missing the banquet.” 

Masumi sighed, his face sad. “Well, I’m sorry to hear that. You know, I was almost too nervous to come and talk to you. I said to myself that I would say hi at the banquet. Good thing I said hi now.” 

Chris chuckled, his tears now dry. “Yeah, good thing.” 

Masumi took out a piece of paper and gave it to Chris. “Call me, I mean if you want to.” 

Chris took the paper and smiled. “Sure. When I have a minute.” 

“Well, I guess I’ll see you. I like your hair, just by the way.” Masumi blushed and ran off down to join his coach, Chris looked down at the number in surprise but delight. “I like yours too….” 

Chris proceeded to mope for months after he lost that tiny piece of paper, it wasn’t until a year ago, just before Sochi, that he met a young choreographer through his coach. 

“Masumi?” 

“Chris?” 

And that was the beginning. The beginning of a happy year between them, it was only in the last month that things fell apart before Chris’ eyes. 

* * *

Chris lays his head on his knees and sobs, his whole body shaking as he cries out loudly. “FUCK!” 

Victor wraps his arms around his friend, letting him cry it all out. He knows that Chris tends to hide things until they overwhelm him, all he can do is hold him. 

_ Masumi left me… Sofia died…  _

He sobs over and over until he can hardly breathe, that’s when Victor begins to hush him gently. “Hush now Chris, deep breaths. We are all here for you.” 

Chris turns over and hides his face in Victor's neck, thinking of all the times that Victor has been there for him. His best friend that he really doesn’t deserve. 

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the ring, his fingers curl in around it as he looks at the silver. He could never give this to anyone but Masumi. He stands and runs closer to the ocean, his arm winds up before tossing the ring into the ocean, letting the metal be taken by the current. 

The wind kicks up just a little, Victor’s fringe flowing off to the side, his eyes exposed as he wraps his arms around Chris’ waist and rests his head on his shoulder. “We are all here for you.” Chris nods, he knows. 

He is so sick of crying, so sick of his heart breaking. 

He needs to let his failed relationship go. 

Let it go. 

Victor keeps holding him all the way back to his house, bringing his numb and exhausted best friend onto the couch. Victor sits sideways and lets Chris lay in between his legs and sleep, his hands running through blond curls. “Oh Chris… I know good things are waiting for you.” 

* * *

Phichit takes heaps of photos on the drive to Yuuri’s house, he didn’t get a chance yesterday and is making up for it. “Oh wow!” 

“Phichit.. It’s just a tree.” 

“Yeah but we don’t have that one in Thailand.” 

“Yes you do.” 

“Oh.. Yeah, we do..” 

They chuckle together and pay the driver when they arrive, Yuuri’s keys jangling brought with them, a barking noise from behind the door. They walk in and are faced with Chris and Victor asleep on the couch in a small pile. Yuuri smiles and shakes his head as he closes the door behind them. “What happened here?” 

Yuuri smirks, “and this is why I like sleeping in, early birds need naps.” Yuuri kisses his fiance’s forehead gently and smiles at him, he brushes the silver strands away. How the hell does he look perfect even in sleep? Phichit smiles at the two and stands beside Yuuri. 

Suddenly Chris grips Victor’s stomach tightly and starts crying in his sleep. “Phichit.. Phichit.. Don’t leave me.. Phi..” 

Phichit turns to Yuuri with wide eyes and points. 

The two whisper furiously. “He said my name!” 

“He’s just dreaming Phi, I’m sorry.” 

“But he’s crying! Do we wake him up?” 

“I don’t know, he needs the sleep.”

“But he’s scared.” 

“I don’t know!” 

Victor’s eyes stay closed as he loudly says. “Would you two shut up? I’m trying to sleep here.” 

Yuuri pouts. “Vitya, don’t be mean.” 

Victor’s eyes immediately open and he touches Yuuri’s face gently. “I’m sorry my love.” 

Chris shuffles and opens his eyes. “Wha..?” 

Phichit kneels in front of Chris who has just realised he was crying and he wipes his eyes. “Hey..” 

Chris sniffles and it looks like he is about to reach out but thinks better of it and sits up. “Hey guys, sorry. I think I need more sleep. Forgive me.” He walks up the stairs slowly, as if his body is weighing down his every step. 

Phichit watches as he climbs, Yuuri and Victor watch Phichit. “Chris let Masumi go. He’s going to be a bit out of it for awhile.” 

Yuuri climbs into the spot previously used by Chris and snuggles into Victor, warming his cold body. “Thank you Vitya.” Victor touches their foreheads together gently. 

Phichit continues to look at the stairs.  _ Chris… Chris… _

A lone tear manifests in dark eyes, coating a caramel cheek as it falls. 


	7. A whole lot of crazy...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Surely one of Victor's dinner parties would be a quiet and sophisticated occasion... Right??

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys!! I'm back with this story, it's a long chapter. I love this story and I will finish it, I promise <3

Quiet sobs wake Phichit from his dreamless sleep, his mind wakes up before his body does and he can only listen as his friend cries in the dark. The bed wobbles a little with each sob, Phichit can feel the pain in his heart. His eyes open and he sees Chris with his head on his knees, he sniffles and sobs with his face hidden. 

“Chris?” 

Chris wipes his nose on his arm and turns to Phichit. “I’m okay. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.” 

Phichit shakes his head and sits up. “Don’t worry about it, i’m here for you.” 

Chris sighs and shakes his head. “Why? I wouldn’t blame you if you think it’s all my fault. Because it is.” 

Phichit doesn’t even hesitate, from what he knows, Chris is innocent. “No it’s not, break ups happen. It’s not your fault.” 

Chris crosses his legs, he looks at Phichit with a look that Phichit doesn’t understand. “It is.. I fell for someone else and I didn’t realise how I hurt Masumi by staying longer at practice. I just messed up.” 

_ He fell for someone else… He... _ Phichit hides his face in his hands and flops on to his side. “It’s not your fault..” 

Chris looks over Phichit’s shoulder. “Peach? Your voice changed.” 

_ Oh, so he is observant. Just clearly not with how I feel. Wow tired Phichit is bitchy Phichit. _“I’m tired. Talk in the morning.”

“Okay..” Chris kisses Phichit’s cheek before curling up on his side, this time they sleep while looking away from each other. 

* * *

Yuuri and Victor exchange glances as Phichit and Chris look down at their cereal bowls in silence. They won’t even look at Victor or Yuuri. 

“So..” Victor starts, Chris peeks up but Phichit remains still. “Otabek and Yuri are coming around for dinner so it would be great if we could all either clean or cook.” 

“I’ll cook.” Chris says. 

Phichit immediately suggests that he should clean. 

“Okay then, Yuuri will cook with you Chris. Yuri loves katsudon.” Phichit and Chris nod and bring their bowls to the kitchen counter. “Come here Phichit, i’ll show you where the mop is.” 

_ He sounds like my mama. _“Okay.” 

Yuuri begins to clear the dishes, Victor wraps his arms around Yuuri’s waist and gives his cheeks little kisses. “Vityaaa! Go show Phichit the mop.” 

Victor fake pouts and lets his fiance go. “Okay, come on Phich.” Phichit follows Victor to the tiny janitor closet that rich Victor has assembled. “I bought this mop from a TV infomercial but I’ve never actually used it.” Victor laughs and brings out the pristine mop. 

“Great.” 

Victor puts his hands on his hips. “What’s wrong? What happened between you and Chris.” 

Phichit sighs and grabs the mop. “How does this work?” 

Victor rapidly explains before hiding the mop behind his back. “Now tell me.” Victor remembers Yuuri’s request to be polite and adds. “Please.” 

“Does it matter… I’m so tired. Let me clean.” Phichit sighs as Victor looks at him, one eyebrow raised. “I love Chris. Okay? I love him!” 

“Oh.. Oh Phichit.. I’m sorry.” Victor reaches towards him and wraps his arms around Phichit’s shoulders. Phichit doesn’t hug back but the embrace isn’t unwelcome. “I’m okay. I’ll live.” Victor nods and pulls away, he hands Phichit the mop and smiles, not with pity but with glee. Phichit is just what Chris needs. 

Phichit sings while he mops in the downstairs bathroom, his voice surprisingly beautiful to all who hear. 

  


At first, Chris thinks Victor is playing music while he sweeps. “That’s a nice song.” 

Yuuri scrubs out his pot, he smiles at Phichit’s song and looks to Chris. “Yeah, he sounds so great right.” 

“Victor has good taste.” Chris shrugs. Yuuri stares at Chris, trying to process the odd comment. 

“What?” 

“Well, I just thought Victor’s taste was a bit more classical.” 

“Yeah it is, Phichit likes more upbeat songs.” 

“Phichit?” 

“Yeah.. That’s Phichit singing.” Chris looks dumbstruck and runs from the room, he chases the voice to the bathroom and watches in shock as Phciht dances around while singing. “There will be no more darkness when you believe in yourself you are unstoppable, where your destiny lies, dancing on the blades you set my heart on fiiiirrreee!” Chris smiles and watches before slipping away, he now can’t remove the smile from his lips as he helps Yuuri make the famous katsudon. 

The low and slow cooked katsudon was ready just in time. Yuri bursts into the house and licks his lips. “Oh yes, get me that pork!” Otabek follows quietly and closes the door behind him. “Hello Victor, Yuuri, Phichit, Christophe.” 

“Hey Otabek, you should check out the bathroom, the floors are spotless.” 

Otabek half smiles at Phichit. “Not right now but thanks for the offer.” 

The group settle in at Victor’ table, the first few minutes are hums of delight. Yuuri has magic hands, that’s for sure. 

“I’m so tired after all that cleaning.” Phichit groans as he leans his head on the table and spoons food into his mouth lazily.

Yuri scowls at Phichit. “Such a drama queen… Lilia makes me clean her ballet studio from top to bottom every single day! Do you know how hot it gets in there?!”

Yuuri scoffs and points his chopsticks Yuri. “Okay, now who’s being dramatic. I help you every night, and she only has us sweep and wipe down the mirrors…” 

Victor chuckles quietly. “Oh I remember those days, now Yakov doesn’t even bother to try and get me to help.” 

Phichit shakes his head. “That poor old man.. Victor!” 

Yuri rolls his eyes, denying himself a piece of pork on his chopsticks so that he can sass Victor out. “He helps all the time, he’s just tryna seem superior.”

“Am not!”

“Are so!”

“Victor’s only saying that because he learned long ago that Yakov doesn’t ask, but will punish you the next day if you don’t help.” Yuuri says teasingly to Victor with a wink and nudge. 

“Yuuuuuri, why you aren’t on my side?” He pouts and huff as he eats his dinner.

“Yeah Yuuri, protect your man!” Phichit says in a sing song voice. 

“I just tell it like it is.” Yuuri shrugs playfully. 

“Ohhhh Yuuri bringing the sass!”

“Yeah Katsudon!”

Victor lowers his head so his silver fringe covers his face as he fake cries on the table.

Chris only half heartedly starts patting Viktor’s back. “There there.”

Otabek has been only watching and takes in the dynamic of the group as he quietly eats his rice. 

“Only more katsudon will fix my woe…” Victor says wistfully. 

Yuuri pouts and glares threateningly. “If I’m not allowed more. Then you aren’t.” 

“I wasn’t talking about the food.” He winks across the table and brings pork into his mouth slowly and overly sexualised. 

Yuuri blushes and just lowers his head down, focused on his food in silence. 

Phichit giggles and nudges Chris. “Shall we go for a walk later? They are so loud when they ‘fight’” 

Chris leans forward, daring to tease, if only to see how Phichit reacts. The early awkwardness forgotten. “I bet you I’m louder” He winks. 

Phichit’s cheeks form a dark pink, his surprise tingling inside him. “Promises promises...”

“I’d love to go on a walk with you, Peach.” Chris smiles at the blushing peach. 

“Oh hell… They are gonna fuck before Beka and I do.”

Otabek coughs as he gasps and accidentally inhales rice, spitting some of his food across the table. 

Phichit smacks Otabek’s back hard. “You alright there!?” 

Chris chuckles sneakily as he watches the young man spluttering, Otabek holds his thumb up to show he’s okay.

Yuuri pouts at the two young friends. “You’re too young for that anyway!” 

“I’m 16!”

“Exactly!” Victor proclaims, “Too young for sex!” 

“I know you lost your virginity at 14!” Yuri points at Victor with his fork.

Victor gasps. “I did not!” 

Chris chuckles. “Yes you did.”

“Victor the world knows that… You weren’t very… Discreet on your myspace.” Yuuri says quietly, his obsession with Victor’s myspace comes out. 

“Well…” Victor tries to defend himself but can’t so he simply pouts. 

“I was 14 and a HALF…” Chris emphasises. 

“Guys! I’m shocked and horrified!” Phichit scoff with his hand on his heart. 

“Oh come on, you were 15!” Yuuri giggles and points his chopsticks at Phichit. 

“Yuuri! How could you betray me!” Phichit puts a hand on his head and pretends to faint right on Chris’ lap. 

Yuuri chuckles loudly at the scene in front of him. 

“How old were you Katsu?” Yuri asks, the table falling silent. 

Yuuri blushes deeply and silences at the question. “I um… That’s a loaded question…” 

“And a heck of a night..” Victor mumbles. 

“Vitya!” Yuuri blushes even harder, he is sure Victor didn’t mean to embarrass him. 

Phichit smacks the table loudly. “Damn Victor! You’re one lucky bastard you know that?” 

“I know.” Victor winks at Phichit and wraps his arm around Yuuri’s. 

“How old were you Beka?” Yuri asks casually, not realising the effect this question has. 

Otabek’s tanned skin becomes dusted with pink. “Uh… Not happened yet.” 

The table explodes in a collective, “What!?” 

“I’m waiting for the right..” Otabek looks to Yura, “Guy…” 

Phichit claps his hands together and leans against Chris’ shoulder. “Awwww!” 

“I guess you can’t believe everything you read on the internet.” Victor says as he starts collecting the finished bowls from the table. 

Otabek shakes his head and blinks in surprise. “What?” 

Yuri speaks up quietly. “Online.. You’re portrayed as the next ‘player’ after Victor found Yuuri and Chris was with that guy.” 

Yuuri continues, “There’s rumors after rumors about you all over Instagram and Twitter.” 

“Hence why I don’t like social media.” Otabek delicately places pork in his mouth with chopsticks. 

“Fair enough. But don’t let them get to you, hardly any of it’s true anyway. Just fangirls and their fantasies.” Yuuri says. 

“I’m gay. Should I post that or..?” 

“That will actually make it worse.” Yuuri laughs lightly. “Mr International superstar here found that out! Did you know there’s actually fanfiction written about figure skaters!”

Victor speaks nonchalantly as he eats, “read it. Lots of good shit about me and Yuuri, in fact we even read some last ni-” Victor finds a large bite of food being shoved in his mouth from his red faced fiance. 

“Some people hardcore ship you and Chris.” Yuri points at Phichit and Chris. “One of my fangirls once sent me a link…” He shudders as he remembers accidentally opening the unnecessarily graphic story. 

Chris raises an eyebrow with a smirk. “Well um.. I may need to see that for… scientific purposes?” 

“It’s pretty good…” Phichit mumbles, a bit louder than expected. 

“A lot of it was written while you were with Masumi though.” Victor says thoughtfully, he’s looked at one or two stories out of curiosity. 

“Oh…” Chris remarks, his eyes locked on Phichit with an intense yet confused gaze. “My fans wanted you and I… This whole time?” 

Phichit’s cheeks pinken further, his tanned skin no longer hiding the blush. “Yeah, it seems that they do.” 

Yuri speaks up in a very unhelpful manner, having not yet learned how to read a room. “I ship you guys, that Masumi treated you like shit.” 

“What? How do you even know that?” Victor says, although he does agree.

“I read your texts when you let me play bubble catch.” Yuri shrugs, his ribs getting dug into by his friend’s elbow. “Beka!” 

Chris pushes his food around, lost in thought for a moment, “It-... It doesn’t matter now.” 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring him up.” Phichit says his hand coming to rest on Chris’ knee. 

“It’s alright… Just a bit of a sore topic…” Chris sighs, pushing his knee closer to Phichit for comfort, “So… Everyone hated Masumi… You all knew?” 

The surrounding skater’s faces turn sheepish as Chris’ gaze moves around the room, Victor is the first to speak up. “I’m sorry Chris, I didn’t see anything good in that relationship but you know I will always support you.” 

“We just… We all thought you deserved better… Someone who doesn’t force you to change who you are for the sake of a relationship.” Yuuri’s eyes drop to the table as he fiddles with his chopsticks.

“He treated you shit, Yakov has more love in his heart than him.” Yurio says as he very subtly slides in hand into Beka’s, just for some stability and support of course. 

Otabek squeezes Yuri’s hand as he looks directly at Chris, “We all support your decisions no matter what, we just want you to be happy.

Phichit rubs Chris’ knee gently. “I think maybe I was just jealous of him..” Eyebrows around the table rise and Phichit immediately scrambles for an answer. “Because he gets to be around your awesome choreography and behind the scenes footage of the great Christophe Giacometti! Am I right!?” Phichit chuckles nervously and just a bit too loud.

_ Wow. That’s obvious… _Yuuri thinks to himself, nonchalantly taking a bite of rice as he gives Phichit that ‘What are you doing?’ look. 

Phichit looks away from his friend, his lower lip in a pout as he desperately thinks of a way out of this hole he dug himself. 

“It really wasn’t as ‘glamorous’ as you’d think, Peach.” Chris tries to giggle and laugh of the conversation. _ Phichit was… jealous? _

“I want all the dirt on you Mr. Perfect, everyone has their dirt but I don’t know any of yours. Victor, for instance, occasionally gets kissed on the lips by his dog. Otabek there, well he is in loooooove. I don’t know with who though.” _ Well… I may as well start paddling up shit creek and bring everyone with me… _

Otabek chokes on his bite, gasping for breath as he brings a hand to his chest, his golden companion rubbing his back and cooing. 

Yuuri just watches on in horror, hoping that Phichit doesn’t bring up ANYTHING from his past. 

“Yuuri, well… Yuuri used to have heaps of poste-”

“STOP RIGHT THERE!” Yuuri stands and points at Phichit with his chopsticks giving him a warning glare. 

Chris smirks, his discomfort momentarily gone with the friendly banter from the table. "You should come to Switzerland and get all the dirt." Chris says with a flirty wink, his hand tightening over Phichit's. 

"Deal." 

* * *

Phichit fluffs his pillow on the bed and folds the corner of his sheets down, ready for him to go to bed. Chris is currently in the bathroom brushing his teeth after his shower. Phichit plugs his phone into his charger and sits it beside his bed while he sits cross legged with his blankets over his legs. His heart skips a beat when Chris enters the room, his hair looks like a fluffy duckling and his cheeks pinkened from the steam in the shower. Chris smiles at the curled up Phichit waiting for him, he could get used to this. “Hey Peach.” Chris flops himself on his side of the bed, wearing only nice clean black briefs.

Phichit winks at Chris and smiles while taking in the nice view in front of him, “Hey Chrispy.”

“Well.. Dinner was interesting.” Chris chuckles, the dinner took a few unexpected turns. Victor never even got the liquor out. 

“Yeah.. A few things came out.” Phichit hides behind his hands, many things came to light for every person around the table. Chris gently pulls Phichit’s hands away, “What are you hiding from?” 

“Fanfiction and the fact I lost my virginity at 15..” 

“And?” Chris chuckles and stretches himself out on the bed.

“It was about.. Us.” 

Chris’ smile falters for only a second, he’s still processing that information. He did love Masumui and he did dream of marrying him one day but it appears that no one, not even Victor approved of that relationship. “Yeah, I guess close male friends cause people to go crazy.” 

_ Friends… Yeah. _

Phichit nods and picks his phone back up, he searched up a game earlier to play with Chris but no he isn’t sure if Chris would want to play with him. Chris leans over and smiles at the words on Phichit’s phone. “Would you rather?” 

Phichit holds his phone to his chest and puts it to the side. “Nope, nothing.”

Chris’ lower lip sticks out. “But I wanted to play.” 

“Really!?” Phichit lights up in that way that makes Chris want to melt into place or freeze the moment, whatever he can to keep that look on his face forever. 

“I’d love to.” 

“Okay!” 

The two men face each other with their legs crossed. “Let’s make them up ourselves.” Chris says and Phichit nods happily. “Okay, you start.” 

Chris hums and thinks, his eyes flicking around while he thinks. “Hmm… Would you rather… Be 12 ft tall or the size of a mouse?” 

“Um.. Mouse! Then I could cuddle my hamsters at their level.” Phichit smiles as he thinks of the scene.

_ That would end well… _“Your turn Peachy.” 

“Would you rather have hands for feet or feet for hands?” 

Chris thinks about it carefully, _ If I had hands for feet I could hide them and/or climb but I wouldn’t be able to skate. _“I think… I would choose hands for feet, I wouldn’t be able to skate but I don’t have many years left anyway.”

“You have ages ahead of you, your skating is beautiful.” 

“Aww thanks peaches.” Chris smiles and looks away as he thinks. “Hmm.. Do you wanna kiss Victor or Yuuri?” 

Phichit coughs a laugh, “That went from zero to crazy.” 

Chris raises his eyebrow. “That wasn’t an answer.” 

“Well… I’ve already kissed Yuuri, he’s a great kisser but I’ve always been curious about Victor’s intoxicating kiss.” 

“Mm yeah it’s pretty fucking good.” 

“Yeah?” 

Chris crawls over the blankets, his chin rubbing Phichit’s shoulder as his lips brush against Phichit’s ear. “You wanna know a secret?” He whispers in his gravelly voice. 

Phichit’s body trembles as he leans his head back, his neck on nice full display. “Uh.. I.. Um.. I.. Yes please.” 

“I taught Victor, everything he knows, he knows from me.” Chris’ hand grips Phichit’s shoulder, his lips right beside Phichit’s jaw, his hot air against Phichit’s tan skin. 

_ Jesus… Lord give me strength… _Phichit leans into Chris’ touch, his body moving closer. “Oh.. R-Really..?” 

“Yes.” Chris nips at Phichit’s ear before pulling back and sitting across from Phichit. His heart stops when he sees the lustful gaze, the skin flushed and hands clenched on his knees, his half hard length clearly visible under his shorts. Chris isn’t sure what he was thinking but he has no a single regret, only a strong wanting that he hasn’t felt in a long time. He pulled away because he knew he had to stop, Phichit is too important for a quick fuck. He can’t let Phichit think that he is just another notch in the bedpost, he’s beautiful, he’s perfect. 

Phichit has nothing to lose at this point, he has everything to gain as he crawls across the sheets, his brain foggy and his eyes hungry and focused on his Chris. He climbs on to Chris’ lap and looks down at him as he kneels up, his chest pressed against Chris’. “I need you. Now.” 

“Phichit?” 

“I’m in love with you, have been since that day I called you Chrisy.” 

Chris’ eyes water at the news, it’s as though his whole world has been flipped into place. His arms wrap around Phichit’s slim waist and hold him close, his head falling to Phichit’s shoulder. “Do you mean it?” 

Phichit runs his hands through Chris’ hair, his body relaxing under Chris’ grasp. “Yeah. I promise.” 

Chris says nothing, his hands only grasp Phichit tighter, his home, his lifeline is in his hands. He needs to decide how best to look after those words. 

* * *

Christophe Giacommetti has been a star in wet dreams since he had his first performance, despite this, Phichit can honestly say he has never had the pleasure of dreaming about Chris, until tonight. 

Phichit squeezes his eyes shut, desperately holding on to the last remnants of his wonderful dream.

Chris had quite literally fucked Phichit into the eiffel tower, dirty french words falling from his lips in a deeper accent than he has in real life. Phichit’s eyes open slowly, he rubs the sleep from his eyes with a yawn. He looks over and sees the beautiful face of sleeping Chris, he so rarely gets to see Chris asleep as the older man usually wakes up early. Phichit rolls over and his thoughts are immediately drawn to the rather pressing matter in his underwear. “Fuck..” He picks up his phone distractedly and checks the time. _ 5:45, okay. That’s good, he won’t be up for awhile. Should I sort this out now or make it go away? I did that last night.. God I want him.. Okay yep this needs to be sorted out right now. _

Phichit very slowly and quietly shuffles out of the blankets, he picks up the nicely folded towel that Victor left him and sneaks down the hallway to the nearest bathroom. 

Chris wakes up with a half snore as he hears the water turn on through the walls. "Huh- wha-" He dazedly looks over to where Phichit is supposed to be and realises he is in the shower, placing his hand over the cooling sheets he glances at the clock and is worried because of the early hour for the late sleeper. _ I wonder what happened… is he okay? _

Phichit runs his hands through his hair in the hot water, groaning a little as his neglected erection becomes more front in his mind. His hair stays in place pushed back, off his forehead. He wraps his hand around his throbbing length and leans his head against the tile in the shower, tiny, muffled moans escape his mouth as he imagines a faceless tall man ploughing into his over and over, his mouth around his dick, his stubble against his balls.. Wait what? Phichit’s eyes flick open for a second but what Chris doesn’t know won’t hurt him, it feels a little wrong being this close but he can’t help it. “Chris..” He whispers.. 

Chris stumbles sleepily down the hallway to the lit, open doored bathroom and is about to knock until he hears a whispery moan. "O-Oh…" He hides behind the wall and contemplates what to do, his hand already making its way under the loose bathrobe he threw over his shoulders. 

Phichit rests his free hand on the glass of the shower door as he slowly winds himself to his climax, the steam pinkening his cheeks. He groans quietly as he imagines Chris’ large hands on his body, his stubbly chin rubbing against his jaw while dirty words flow from those plump lips. “Chris.. Oh..” He whimpers and runs his thumb over the head, his moans falling from his lips, it’s becoming harder to keep those moans quiet. 

Chris blushes deeply, his dick very interested as he hears his name fall from Phichit’s lips, he reaches for the door to close it, but knows Phichit will notice. He chooses instead to stay hidden next to the doorway, listening, heart pounding. _ I need to know… I need to know what he looks like… just a peek _Slowly Chris leans over and peers around the corner and gasps almost silently, his hand tightening around his length. His fist pumping him in time with Phichit's quiet moans. His eyes close and he leans his head against the wall beside the door, he thrusts into his hand and covers his gasps with his free hand. 

Phichit cries out, his fingers squeaking as they fall down the glass door. He pumps himself a few more times, his chest heaving and voice cracking. “Oh god..” He throws his head back and cries out one word, nice and loud. “Christophe!” 

Chris practically moans at hearing his full name in the context, he pumps himself fast, he knows Phichit will be coming out soon and he can't be caught. He whimpers a moan at the mental images of Phichit falling apart while calling Chris, it doesn't take long. He cums harder than he expected, his underwear and robe wet and warm again at him. "Oh fuck.." 

In the fluffy daze, Chris doesn't hear the shower door opening, a towel being wrapped around wet caramel skin. 

"Chris?" 

Chris' eyes fly open and he scrambles to cover himself with his robe. "Hey Peaches!"

Phichit raises an eyebrow, Chris never worries about covering himself. "You alright there?" 

"Sorry, yeah. I need the shower." Chris rushes into the bathroom and closes the door, his cheeks bright and horror on his face. "Fuck.."


	8. All the floof!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So... Much... Fluff!

Chris gave himself a very hot shower to make an excuse of his bright pink cheeks when he sees Phichit sitting cross legged on their bed. “Hey.” 

“Nice shower?” Phichit asks, clearly he still doesn’t know that Chris had watched him in the shower. 

“Yeah, nice and clean.” Chris tries to be himself, he leans over and boops Phichit on the nose. Chris smiles as the boy scrunches up his nose in the cutest way. 

“Hey, can you speak French? I wasn’t sure what people speak in Switzerland.” For some reason Phichit blushes after asking, Chris has a suspicion as to why that is, he decides to test that theory. 

“oui je le sais, nous parlons plusieurs langues mon petit garçon”

Phichit’s breaths come in frantic breaths, his cheeks a dark pink. “Wow..”

Chris smirks, “don’t you want to know what I said?” 

Phichit giggles and decides to reveal his little secret he has been learning from Celestino. “j'ai appris le français”

Chris can’t resist, he knows he’s fucked but he may as well enjoy it while it lasts. He takes Phichit’s chin in his fingers and brings him close to kiss those plump lips that were calling his name only minutes ago. Phichit whimpers and leans into the kiss, his arms coming up around Chris’ back, his hands tighten on the back of his white shirt. 

“I miss real life.” Chris whispers, his forehead dropping to Phichit’s as he pulls back from their kiss. 

“How do you mean?” 

“I want to go back to Switzerland, get back to training with Josef and I miss my cat. This little holiday feels.. I mean it’s nice but I have to get back to reality.” 

Phichit keeps his head down, trying to hide his tears and sniffling. “I get that.. I do.” 

Chris kisses Phichit’s hair, he feels a slight tremor in the boy but he simply holds Phichit tighter. “I miss you already.” 

Phichit holds in his sobs and forces a smile. “That’s okay, I’ll see you in America.” 

Chris nods and lets Phichit go, his heart aching deep within him. “I’ll miss you so much.” Chris turns and walks out of their shared room, it seemed like such a simple decision to go home, he never realised the implication of leaving Phichit behind. He turns around and goes back into the room. “You know… You could come with me?” 

Phichit looks up, his eyes brightening. “You really want me!?” 

“Of course I do, it’s going to be lonely without you Pea-” Chris suddenly finds himself with a Phichit bundled in his arms. 

“I’ll pack my bags!” Phichit wraps his legs around Chris and hides his head on Chris’ shoulder. 

“I don’t have a spare bedroom at my place, though…” Chris smirks.

“I could always take the couch.. Unless it’s been misplaced..” Phichit giggles and lowers his legs down slowly from Chris’ hips. 

“Honestly… How could you misplace a friggin couch?!”

“Have you met Victor?” 

“Yeah, and I know the couch is sitting nice and settled in the garage.”

“Is it?” Phichit shakes his head and nudges Chris, his arms still wrapped loosely around Chris’ neck. “What were you doing in there?” 

“Oh I wasn’t! Just a hunch… Call it experience…” He chuckles and runs a hand through his blond hair.

Phichit falls still, watching the hand retreat from blond curls. “O-Oh…” He wets his lips with the tip of his tongue as he watches the golden locks flopping away from Chris’ face. 

“I may have done the same thing when Victor and Yuuri visited me… You know before they started dating.”

“Oh so you are the reason for my Victuuri tag?” Phichit does the ‘thing’, the ‘thing’ where he flips his hair to the side and runs a finger along his lips, as though he is thinking, really he is making his lips look plump and delicious. He knows the effect this has on people, but he adds a half smile and wink to his ‘thing’. 

Chris blinks and his cheeks heat, spreading to his ears, “Uh- I Yeah…”

“You missed some soap by your ear.” Phichit runs a thumb through damp strands of hair that rest just over Chris’ ear, he notices how warm Chris has become. “You’re gorgeous, you know? Any man would be lucky to have you. Or woman! I didn’t mean to assume you are gay.. I’m Bisexual myself.”

“I am!” Chris says too fast, “I mean- I um… I’m gay..”

Phichit chuckles and pulls away from Chris, he sits on their shared bed once again and smiles. “Tell me about that?” 

Phichit’s question confuses him, “What? What do you mean?”

“When did you know you were gay? Did you have a big coming out or were you clear from a very young age?” 

Chris smiles and thinks as he climbs into the bed, “I was pretty in between for a little while but I’ve known since I was 14.” 

“Who was your first crush?” 

“Um… Victor? Yeah.. Victor..”

“Mine too, I think anyway. I was obsessed with him for a while until I saw another skater on TV. He was incredible, his movements spoke to me in a way I had never known before. He was innocent yet experienced and he was everything I wanted to be. He was amazing and he never got the credit he deserved.” Phichit trails off, his eyes falling to the covers under his folded legs. 

“Sounds like another guy I have a crush on” Chris speaks unconsciously.

“Oh.. Not Masumi then?” Phichit pinches the cover between his fingers, picking at a little thread.

Chris blinks, “What?”

“Huh?” Phichit’s eyes go wide. “Oh! I just meant that he’s not… Um.. A skater?” 

Chris blushes as he realises what he just said, “Oh! Um Well.. Uh it’s not important.”

“Okay..” Phichit smiles, his confidence slowly coming back after his heart attack. “Can you try and braid my hair? It’s almost long enough now, I want a braid for my next season but i’m not sure if it’s ready yet.”

“Of course!” Chris enthuses, scooting to the headboard and parting his legs for Phichit to settle in the middle, thankful for the distraction.

Phichit curls between Chris' legs and sighs, flipping his hair away from his eyes. “Can I ask you another personal question?”

Chris starts parting Phichit’s hair on one side, ”Sure..?”

“How did you feel when you lost your virginity? And to who? I’ve heard a lot of different stories about you but I highly doubt any are the truth.” 

“It wasn’t the best… Worst I’ve had actually…”

“Oh, sorry. We don’t have to talk about it. I was just making conversation..” 

“No it’s fine really! It was the night of the banquet of my first Senior Worlds. I was underage, got too drunk… and listened to the wrong man. One of the sponsors.

“Let me guess.. He promised money for your programs? Those men make me sick.” 

“Yep. Hit it on the nose…”

“I’m sorry baaa- Chris.” He blushes but Chris can’t see it thank god. He strokes Chris’ leg along the stripe of his pajama pants. 

Chris hears the near slip and can’t help but tease, “Oh what was that…. _ babe.” _

Phichit blushes more and covers his face with his hands. “I didn’t wanna go too faaaaar.” He whines and leans back in Chris’ arms, his braids forgotten momentarily. He shivers from the warmth of Chris surrounding him, his muscled chest rising and falling behind him. 

Chris flinches slightly before relaxing, choosing to wrap his arms around Phichit loosely over his shoulders, holding him close. “You didn’t, little one. Promise.”

Phichit giggles and turns over so his face is hiding in Chris’ chest. “Oh stop that!” 

Chris nuzzles into Phichit’s hair gently, “Nope!”

“I was embarrassed! Just going up to my crush like that.. You must have thought I was crazy.” 

Chris laughs, “Actually I thought you were completely adorkable.”

“Really?” Phichit looks up, his long lashes enhancing his natural beauty, he has no makeup on, his hair is soft from his shower. He blinks up at Chris. “My first crush..” 

Chris unconsciously brushes his lips against the top of Phichit’s hairline, “So do you have any crushes now?”

“I think after our kisses and my pining.. You already know.” He closes his eyes and takes a breath, his hand trailing over Chris’ palm to connect their fingers.


	9. Unromantic airport movie moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience <3 i'm trying to upload one chapter for each open story I have. Quite the challenge.

“I… Me too..”

“Is it too soon?” Phichit asks, his body trembling in his arms and chest. He crosses his legs and looks up at Chris once more. 

Chris hesitates, but shakes his head, “I don’t think so. This? It feels right.”

“I agree, maybe a little crazy will be good for our funk.” Phichit kisses their joined hands. 

“I'll go book our tickets back, need Victor’s credit card though.” He winks and kisses Phichit’s cheek before leaving the room with a small butt wiggle. 

Phichit smiles as the door closes, he couldn’t be more happy. Then why is he crying? He wipes his eyes with the back of his hands, his fingers bunch in the sheets desperately. He knows with all his heart that this will be amazing, Josef is a great coach. Then why is he still crying?

* * *

Victor is crying before Phichit finishes packing his bag, Yuuri clearly didn’t anticipate this level of tears, the poor bean is patting his fiance’s back and trying to bring him back. Victor continued to sniffle as he loaded the bags into the back of the car, Yuuri ended up being the designated driver. Phichit’s hands twirl two pieces of paper between his hands, he’s at a crossroads. 

The four pile out of the car and enter the energetic atmosphere of the airport. Chris hurries to the Swissair check in desks, Phichit however, hangs back. Yuuri puts his hand on Phichit’s shoulder. “Phi?” 

“I don’t know what to do.” He hugs Yuuri tightly and whispers in his ear. “It seemed like such a good idea at the time.”

“Follow your instincts.” Yuuri whispers back and kisses Phichit’s cheek. 

Phichit pulls back from the embrace and nods, he grips the paper tightly. “Thanks for having me.” 

“Our pleasure.” 

Phichit leans down to look in the driver side window, he shakes his head with a small smile. Victor is sniffling and hiding his face, Yuuri sure brought out his emotional side. “Bye Victor, thank you for everything.” 

“I’ll mi-miss-s yo-ou.” 

“Aw i’ll miss you too.” Phichit giggles and grips his small suitcase. “Thanks again.” 

“Bye guys!” Yuuri gives Chris a quick hug and retreats back into the car, they are in a loading zone after all. 

Chris and Phichit take their suitcases into the airport side by side. Chris does notice Phichit’s less than usual chatter but he simply assumes Phichit is upset to leave Yuuri. They finally reach the check in desks, deep in the bustling morning airport. 

Chris smiles and heads straight for the Swissair desks, he stops just as he reaches a machine and looks back at Phichit. “I need your passport.” 

Phichit nods, he itches to just throw away all reason and chase Chris down in Switzerland, but he can’t. His whole life is waiting for him. He gestures to Chris to come over. 

Chris’ smile falters and he pulls his suitcase over. “What’s wrong? We have to kinda hurry.” 

“I would love to go with you Chris.”

Chris senses the open end of Phichit’s sentence, his heart dropping, “Phichit? What are you saying?”

“I mean.. Celestino is in Thailand, he has my whole season planned out. I can’t just leave him hanging can I?” Phichit scratches at the back of his neck. “He can watch me on video chat I guess.” 

“We can make it work, I’m sure…” Chris drops off.

“Yeah, yeah i’m sure it will be great!” Phichit smiles but it doesn’t quite meet his eyes. 

“You… don’t want to come back with me,” Chris realises.

“I do. Baby..” He walks over to Chris and takes his face between his hands. “More than anything I want to come with you.” 

“You just won’t,” Chris snaps, pulling back from Phichit’s hands.

“It’s just.. We didn’t think about my skating.. I’m not ready to give up just yet, I've only just started.. I won the China qualifier and that was because of Celestino’s guidance. I just.. I..” He pulls out one ticket to Switzerland, the other for Thailand. 

Chris glances and realises the situation, “Fine. I’m going to go, otherwise I’ll miss the flight, I will either see you there, or I won’t.” 

“Chris, please don’t do this.. I’ll come with you, just don’t let us part like this!” He’s desperate, he pulls on Chris’ sleeve. 

Chris pulls out of Phichit’s grip roughly, “I get it, you have to choose best for you.”  _ And that’s not me. _

“Why are you acting like this!? You said you loved me, if that was true you wouldn’t be so mean right now.” Phichit’s tears are flowing freely, he’s so scared and so heartbroken at the same time. All he has ever wanted is Chris. 

“Because I’m losing you!” Chris snaps, eyes teary and stinging. 

“Who said that? I didn’t.” Phichit sniffles and tries to reach for Chris’ hand. “I love you.. And I’ll see you soon okay? In America.” 

“I love you too…” Chris speaks, tears already dripping, he doesn’t say anything more before walking off, wanting to get away before he completely breaks down.  _ How could he do this right now.. Why did he lead me on.. Give me hope.  _

“Chris don’t leave me like this! Chris!” Phichit grips the handle of his bag for support, he can feel the eyes of dozens of passengers on him. He watches Chris walking away, he wants to follow so desperately. Instead, he rips up the ticket to Switzerland and tosses it in the bin before walking towards Thai Airways. 

* * *

Phichit curls up in his bed, so wishing he was anywhere else. He needs his friends back. Just as he thinks about Yuuri, his phone chimes for a video call, he checks the name and sees Yuuri, he clicks accept, uncaring down unkempt he looks. “Hi..” 

“Phichit? You didn’t let me know when you landed, I was worried… What happened?” Yuuri looks worried through the phone. 

“I bought a separate ticket. It was to Thailand.” 

“Phichit…” Yuuri gasps, “Why didn’t you say anything!?”

“It was a last minute decision! I was so excited to be with Chris and go be crazy and move in with him and train with him but.. My judgement was clouded. Celestino is here and he’s already sorted my routines and music and he understands the way I move. My career is important too..” Phichit sniffles and curls around his phone, his face illuminated by soft orange light. 

Yuuri sighs, “I understand completely… So what happened?”

“I tried to explain that my life is here right now. He flipped out and started getting mean and yelled at me..” Phichit closes his eyes, letting tears stream down his cheeks. 

“Oh Phichit… I’m so sorry… You should have called. It’s going to be okay… Maybe-... Maybe he just needs time to process?” Yuuri tries soothing Phichit through the phone.

“It’s my fault… I should have told him earlier but I didn’t know what to do…” He opens his eyes and looks at Yuuri, his eyes are unfocused, anxiety at a high. 

_ Oh no…  _ “You didn’t know what you wanted to do, and you needed to work that out before you could tell anyone. This isn’t your fault.” Yuuri speaks calmly, assuring Phichit as much as he can. 

“I hurt him.. He was already vulnerable and he needed me, Yuuri!” 

“Phichit wait, just stop and take a breath for a moment.” Yuuri coaxes, much like Phichit used to do for him. 

Phichit closes his eyes again and tries to take deep breaths, he just can’t get Chris’ heartbroken face out of his head. 

“You said you needed to make this decision for you and your career. It’s your job to take care of you first,” Yuuri speaks slowly, “I’m sure this can all be worked out, but for now, you need to focus on you.”

“What about Chris?” 

“I’m sure he will be okay, I’ll get Victor to check on him.” Yuuri gives a sad smile at his friend. “I’m sorry, I have to go.” 

Victor’s voice comes from the background. “Yuuri! Time for our run.” 

“Yeah, I’m coming.” He looks back at the screen. “I’m sure it will all work out Phich. I’ll call tomorrow?” 

“Okay. Bye Yuuri.” Phichit ends the call right there, he falls onto his back and holds the phone in his hands. He only allows a small, silent, tear to escape down his cheek. 

  
  



	10. The fall of Christophe Giacometti.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The title says it all.

Phichit’s calls are left unanswered. His letters unopened. 

Chris is hard at work, his every waking moment is spent on the ice, the same robotic motions over and over and over. His emotion is drained. He decided to skate a heartbreak after Masumi broke his heart but it doesn’t quite feel the same now. Masumi has been at the rink every day. Even though he is still Chris’ choreographer, he doesn’t need to be at the rink every day. His constant presence is not even close to helping Phichit get out of Chris’ mind. 

Chris fucks up, not on the ice, but in life. He knew it was a bad idea even before he started but he tried, he tried so hard to get back to his normal. He slept with Masumi. He now has another memory to try and forget with the ice but at this point, he’s a fucking mess. Why does he keep doing this to himself!? He should have forgiven Phichit for only being a confused young man but it’s too late now. He’s gone and ruined everything. 

For some reason, Masumi thinks they are together again. Chris has told him time and again that they are only friends and that sleeping together was a mistake. That doesn’t stop the flowers and cards from being dropped on his doorstep. It doesn’t stop Masumi from sitting on the bleachers beside Chris whenever the man has a break. 

It’s hard to admit, Masumi actually succeeds in helping Chris in many aspects of his life. It’s like the universe is trying to push them together but that’s not his soulmate. 

Chris pushes forward, his skating is not good and he knows it. When it comes time for the grand prix qualifiers, Josef makes the suggestion. 

“Chris, maybe you should take a year to yourself. You’ve had a shit time, we could call it a gap year.” 

“No.” 

“Christophe..” 

Chris stops tying his skate so he can look up at his coach, he’s trying not to bawl his eyes out. He knows he can’t skate, he knows he will lose, but if he doesn’t… Will he ever be able to again? “I’m going out.” 

Josef sighs and shakes his head, he knows Chris can be difficult these days. This poor boy. 

* * *

Chris readies himself, he’s taking the ice in china for his first qualifier. His costume is wrong, the lighting is wrong, the song is wrong. And yet, he takes to the ice. Here he goes, attempting the cup of China. 

Chris curses himself for picking such a weird and upbeat song, his choreography is way off and not to his style whatsoever. The rocky horror song begins to play and Chris begins to skate. He’s off right from the start. He tries to catch up but it’s hopeless. 

‘Damn it, Janet, I love you.’ 

He pushes through the song, finishing with a slam of his skate into the ice. He’s not even puffing, there was nothing in his skate. 

There are five other skaters in the cup of China. 

Georgi Popovich,

Leo de la Iglesia,

Victor Nikiforov,

Lee Seung Gil,

Kenjiro Minami.

Chris was horrified when he found out that Victor would be here, there’s no way he will be above a score of 60 and he can’t bear to see Victor’s disappointment. He ignores the offered towel from his coach and instead plants himself on the bench beside the rink and begins to unlace his skates. He watches from the kiss and cry, he blinks his eyes and tries to see past the usual glare from the ice. He’s not surprised to see his score is a measly 59.99. The lowest he has gotten in years. 

He walks in the opposite direction of his coach, completely ignorant of the shocked reporters pointing their cameras in their hands. He walks out of the rink and into the hallways, he searches until he finds a little nook hidden under a staircase in the emergency exit area. He curls himself under there, his feet bare and chilly. He holds his knees to his chest and hides his face. He’s sobbing, lost in his own despair. He knows he brought this all on himself and he shouldn’t have decided to skate. He’s failing, he’s lost everything that matters to him. 

Victor watches the scoreboard, he’s won. But that’s not a massive surprise, what’s more shocking is Chris’ extremely low score. He goes on a little hunt, following the direction his best friend fled. Knowing Chris, Victor decides to look for a small cozy spot to curl up in. It’s honestly like tracking a cat. Victor looks in small rooms, down the hall and janitor closets. He’s about to head back inside when he spots a staircase behind a closed door with a small window in it.  _ Chris.. Seriously.  _ Victor opens the door and hears the telltale sniffling and shuffling coming from the small space beneath the staircase. “Chris?” 

The sniffling stops and Victor can hear a small wipe. “Victor.” 

Victor sits beside his friend, they are unable to stay hidden when there are both men tucked into the space. “So, what’s the deal?” 

Chris shakes his head. “Don’t, Victor. I’m berating myself enough as it is.”

“Right then.” Victor looks at his feet as he taps them gently. 

They sit together, Chris wipes his nose with a tissue from his pocket. His eyes are the only sign he has cried. Victor turns his face towards Chris, just as he does so, Chris rests his head on Victor’s shoulder. “Do… Do you remember the old days? Back when everything was simple? It was you and me, best friends with sex and fun.”

“I remember.” Victor smiles as he thinks back to those few wonderful years before Masumi, before he and Chris decided they should remain friends only. “Remember that time we were caught making out in the hotel ballroom? That maid looked as though she had witnessed us having sex right there and then.”

Chris chuckles and sniffs. “I remember. That was a great day, we got to wake up together that day.” 

“I remember.” Victor smiles, he did love those times but since he met his soulmate, it’s as though nothing matters but here and now. Yuuri is his whole world, his love and his life. He’s never been so happy, he knows that’s how Chris feels. About Phichit Chulanont. 

“When did life become such a hard thing to unscramble, I feel like I’m reaching for lifelines that are always out of my reach.” 

“You know Phichit didn’t intend to hurt you, don’t you.” 

Chris sits up, his head pulls away from the safety of Victor’s shoulder. “How can you be so sure?” 

“Well, not only has he been talking to Yuuri every day for the past three weeks, but he begged for  _ my  _ forgiveness.” Victor smiles gently and leans an arm over his knee. “He’s desperate to get in contact with you, he loves you.” 

“Why didn’t he come with me then, to ditch me at the airport..” 

“He regrets that so much, sometimes you forget Chris. Phichit is only 21.” 

“Yeah, maybe he’s just too young for me.” 

“Oh Chris..” Victor sighs and reaches out his hand. “Come on, you can still redeem yourself in the free program tomorrow. 

* * *

Chris did not, in fact, redeem himself. His score is unmentionable, he won’t repeat it. He knows he won’t be going to the Grand Prix final. That’s okay, it’s really okay. Maybe it was meant to happen this way. 

Chris watches as the Grand Prix list is announced, he’s not surprised in the slightest. They are shown in order of their qualification. 

**Victor Nikiforov,**

**Yuri Plisetsky,**

**Katsuki Yuri, **

**Jean Jaques Leroy,**

**Phichit Chulanont,**

**Otabek Altin. **

Chris curls in a ball on his bed, his cat nuzzles him with her soft little head. “Hey, kitten.” He strokes her and watches the short program, it’s taking place in Germany this year, nice and close to him. Josef is there already. Chris really didn’t want to see that take place. Josef calls Chris’ phone, he lazily accepts. 

“Christophe! Get your ass here now, we have a problem.” 

“What?” 

“It’s Phichit.” 

Chris ends the call and snatches his keys, he’s driving to Germany tonight. The car roars to life and Chris slams the accelerator.  _ I’m coming, my beautiful soulmate.  _


	11. Ruse.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter of part one of this story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I understand if you may be a little frustrated that this story is now in two parts but this felt like a natural ending. The next part will have domestic fluffiness mixed in with some building angst. I promise a happy ending for our long suffering boys. Thank you so much for reading and stay tuned for part two!

Chris looks left to right as he races into the rink, he’s waiting to spot a rush of people, lights blinking and sirens.  _ Is Phichit okay!?  _

He’s leaning over the rails, disheveled looking and breathing heavily. His eyes are wild and full of tears, his knuckles white as they grip the boards around the rink. A large hand falls to Chris’ shoulder and he flinches away, his body turning towards his coach. 

“Relax Chris, it was a ruse.” Josef says with his hands raised. 

Chris is still frantic, eyes wide as he glares at his coach, “A ruse?!”

“You have to see this Chris, I couldn’t get you out of your funk any other way.” Josef reaches a hand out and drops it to Chris’ shoulder. 

“What’s the point!?” Chris shouts, frustrated, “Phichit gave me his answer… I-... I can’t just come here and act like nothing happened!”

“Stop acting like a child, don’t throw your life away for one misunderstanding. Don’t lose the love of your life over one minute of your time together.” Josef takes both of Chris’ shoulders and stares him down. 

Chris sighs, “And if it doesn’t work… Then what? I can’t lose him again Josef… It’ll kill me…” 

“Come here.” He pulls his student into his arms and holds him tightly, something he really should do more. “I’m so proud of you, regardless of your season this year.”

“I-” Chris chokes up and breaks, hugging his coach close desperately, “I know…”

“He’s ready!” Josef takes Chris’ shoulders and turns him towards the ice. “Just watch.” 

Chris hesitantly looks up, watching the ice, tracing the cuts in the surface with his gaze. He watches Phichit nodding to his coach before skating around the rink. He’s not smiling, he’s not waving. Chris is open mouthed, Phichit looks… Broken. He’s steady though, he plants himself in the middle of the ice and waits for the music to play. 

Chris’ heart skips a beat at the unusual song choice. In true Phichit fashion, he plays a well known song but with something a little different about it.

His free skate song is ‘Come what may’ but it’s sung by the cast of the television show Glee. It’s sung by two men in love, far more relatable to him. His every move is precise and full of emotion, the exact opposite of Chris’ last skates. He’s pouring himself into every move, every jump, landing each one with a perfect score. There’s this one moment where Phichit raises his leg and stretches his arm out in front of him, his hair falling out of it’s perfectly slicked back form, the one moment Chris realises. 

_ ‘But, I love you.. Until the end of time..’  _

Phichit is skating for him.

Chris gasps as his hand shakily comes upto his chest, clutching his shirt tightly as he takes in the every word and motion that Phichit pours out...for him. His eyes water, unknowingly leaving tracks down his cheeks. 

Kurt begins to join in, Chris can’t help moving on his own accord, his feet bringing him towards the rink, his mouth whispering the words. “But I love you..”

_ ‘But I love you..’  _

“Until the end…” 

_ ‘Until the end.. Of… time.’  _

“I will love you, until my dying day.” Chris says, loud enough for Phichit to hear him between the music ending and crowd cheering. 

Phichit turns, he’s breathing heavily, he’s spotted Chris. He mouths Chris’ name, he hesitates for a second before skating across the ice towards Chris. He opens his arms at the last second before he reaches the boards, he brings Chris into an awkward televised hug. 

Chris hugs him tightly, lifting him off his feet so that Phichit is dangling over the ice from his arms, “Phichit… You are… That was…” He can’t bring himself to finish a sentence through his shock.

Phichit covers Chris’ mouth with one finger. “My name is Phichit Chulanont, I am 22 years old. I am completely in love with you. And you are?” Phichit smiles and Chris lowers him to the ground. 

Chris smiles and laughs as he wipes his eyes, “I’m… I’m Christophe Giacometti… I’m 26 years old… And I love you so much… I’m head over heels for you…” 

“Nice to meet you.” 

Grand Prix final Berlin 2017. 

  1. Phichit Chulanont. 
  1. Victor Nikiforov
  2. Yuri Plisetsky
  3. Katsuki Yuuri
  4. Jean Jacques
  5. Otabek Altin. 


End file.
